“I don’t have main character syndrome,” Jensen McRae says, “ so much as I have narrator syndrome.” Her songwriting often begins with the smallest snippet, overheard words or phrases that light up a title or a concept. It’s conversational, interactive in how it often sparks from the people and places around her. It also shows up in McRae’s output, which is prolific, generous, and blisteringly unafraid of failure. “I just never saw the downside to sharing something online,” she says, “or to something not resonating, because I know that I will have more ideas. It’s really ok if I post something and it flops.” “Massachusetts” began as one such post, and after months of fans clamoring for the completed version, it arrives as McRae’s first release with Dead Oceans. Through her lens as a narrator, the clarity of her songwriting and the depth of her voice, McRae delivers the gift of a song that makes lost love a little more lovable again.
The beginnings of “Massachusetts” were simple — just McRae and a piano — and it didn’t have a name when she first shared it. Its pieces locked together quickly, with McRae clicking its sharp, irresistible details into a tight rhythmic package. The song became known as #videogames or #christianbale, and what leaps out first is a soft but weary feeling, the longing and lingering that comes after heartbreak. What follows, though, is effervescent: the lightness of healing, the freedom to remember what was good about being together. The song took off.
Jensen McRae announce headline at The Workman’s Cellar, Dublin
Wednesday, 18th June 2025
Tickets €20.00 including booking fees available Friday, 28th February at 10am