Jensen McRae Is No Longer ‘Praying For Your Downfall’ on New Song
Jensen McRae’s sophomore album I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! will be released on April 25th. The singer-songwriter’s album announcement comes with new single “Praying For Your Downfall” and a run of headlining tour dates across North America, Europe, and the U.K.
On “Praying For Your Downfall,” McRae’s heart is starting to heal after a painful breakup. She’s shed her most negative thoughts about her ex and now hopes they get what they deserve, whatever that is. She co-wrote the song with Sam de Jong, who also worked on McRae’s favorite Gracie Abrams song “Close to You.”
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For McRae, “Praying For Your Downfall” is a natural successor to her July single “Massachusetts,” which served as the first taste of her upcoming album. “[Both songs] complicate the normal way we think about breakup songs,” McRae tells Rolling Stone. “The classic thing is to either be completely devastated or to be furious. I feel like ‘Massachusetts’ and ‘Praying For Your Downfall’ are both about the less intense feelings, like the moments of surrender when you realize you have to give up on being devastated and furious.”
McRae reunited with her “Wolves” video director Katharine White for the “Praying For Your Downfall” visual. She wanted a more simple and straightforward story, one that dealt with the relationship between an artist and their muse. “The theme of the video is that it tells the story of the dissolution of the relationship because one person no longer wants to be a muse, which is not the direct plot of the song,” McRae explains. “But it’s something that still really resonated with me as an artist because I am accustomed to turning people into my muse. I’ve now had the experience of being someone else’s muse. It’s a very challenging position to be in and it’s hard to be on either side of it.”
McRae’s sophomore LP will be her first on Dead Oceans, the label home to artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Bright Eyes, and Toro y Moi. McRae calls it her “dream label” and may have manifested her signing.
“I recently found a list of things I want to accomplish that I’d made in 2019, and I had listed the late-night shows and festivals I wanted to play,” she explains. “One of the things I did list was labels I would want to sign to, and Dead Oceans was number one.”
McRae has been working on her next album since before she was signed to her new label. She released her debut Are You Happy Now? In March 2022 and the oldest song on her latest dates back to April of that year.
“I never really stopped writing,” she admits. “It’s a nonstop thing because I can’t help myself.”
Much of the album explores the process of coming out of an intense heartbreak, with “Praying For Your Downfall” and “Massachusetts” being the “furthest along in the healing process.” The goal for I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! was “to tell a cohesive narrative” of her last three years but to also make big pop songs inspired by her experiences opening for MUNA and Noah Kahan on their tours. Performing “Silk Chiffon” with MUNA was particularly inspiring.
“I wanted there to be moments of rigorous joy,” she says. “Pop music can be intellectual, stimulating and really powerful. I wanted to have songs you could dance to, chant to, that get stuck in your head. But ultimately it still taps into the same raw nerve the rest of my music does.”
If the name I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! sounds familiar, that’s because McRae borrowed it from the film Back to the Future. The scene it was pulled from, where it’s revealed that Doc Brown had pieced together Marty’s letter and survived a shooting, feels very emblematic of McRae’s twenties.
“What I realized is that all the things I thought were going to kill me didn’t. You ultimately survive everything except the last thing,” she says. “You never finishing being alive until the end. You never finish having life changing experiences. You never finish having traumatic experiences. There’s always going to be those ups and downs. There’ s something freeing about saying ‘It’s going to get bad again, but it’s also going to get good again.’”
I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! track list:
1. “The Rearranger”
2. “I Can Change Him”
3. “Savannah”
4. “Daffodils”
5. “Let Me Be Wrong”
6. “Novelty”
7. “I Don’t Do Drugs”
8. “Tuesday”
9. “Mother Wound”
10. “Praying For Your Downfall”
11. “Massachusetts”
I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! World Tour Dates
May 3 – Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live
May 4 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
May 7 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
May 10 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
May 12 – Montreal, QC @ Fairmount Theatre
May 13 – Toronto, ON @ Axis Club
May 15 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
May 16 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
May 18 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre\
May 19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Soundwell
May 21 – Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theatre
May 22 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
May 23 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
May 25 – Napa, CA @ BottleRock
May 28 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre
June 10 – Berlin, Germany @ Privatclub
June 12 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Bitterzoet
June 14 – Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
June 16 – Paris, France @ Le Hasard Ludique
June 18 – Dublin, Ireland @ The Workman’s Cellar
June 20 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3 Poetry Club
June 21 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
June 22 – Bristol, UK @ The Exchange
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