Jensen McRae Releases Debut Album, Are You Happy Now?
The ongoing narrative of the album as a whole is: the human experience. It’s about new love, unrequited love, intrapersonal conflict, identity, experiencing and working through trauma, and how all of these things combine to make the person that you see when you look in the mirror. Appearing in three separate parts, “Headlock Pt. 1 (Mother),” “Headlock Pt. 2 (Father),” “Headlock Pt. 3 (Daughter)” tell the story of a girl (8 years old) who struggles with where she fits in when she belongs to an “angry world” that would sooner “throw [her] to the dogs” than allow her to be a part of it. This trilogy wraps itself up with the narrator thinking back to “the king and queen and the dragons that they slayed” to keep her safe.
Moving along through the album, listeners are met with the track “Adam’s Ribs.” In a World Cafe interview with Raina Douris, McRae explains that, “’Adam’s Ribs’ was a song that I wrote based on just a title. I really wanted to write a song with that title and this song came out of the first session that I had with Rahki [McRae’s producer] I had just met him 2 days prior and I came into the studio and he said ‘just pretend like I’m not here and write how you would normally write.’ And I wrote this song about how unrequited love has always felt for me which is like you literally feel like you’re made out of this other person. Like you only exist because they exist.” It might seem a simple task, to write a song about a collective feeling shared by nearly every person at one point in their lifetime, but in classic Jensen McRae fashion, she takes this simple concept, and turns it into something of grandeur. Using biblical allusions to the creation story of Adam and Eve, McRae delivers a love letter to Adam, begging him, “Adam, will you claim me as your own?” Overwhelmed by the love she has for this man she declares, “I refuse to let you go. Loving you is in my bones.” This song, with its theatrical storytelling and dynamic vocal interpretation comes to a head with a bridge that utilizes McRae’s upper vocal register as she professes, “The high is worth the bruise. I’d still eat the fruit.”
As audiences begin to make their way to the back half of Are You Happy Now?, they are confronted with McRae’s, “Wolves.” An at times unsettlingly-authentic portrayal of abuse (whether it be physical, sexual, or an abuse of power), “Wolves” was written as a reflection of “a lifetime of experiences in retrospect” where McRae “was able to process them a bit more metaphorically and at a greater distance.”
“Though I got away, I never walked the same”
“Wolves” by Jensen McRae
During the World Cafe interview, Jensen McRae goes into more depth about the background of the song saying, “I started thinking about all the times in my life where I’d realized the world was not as safe a place as I thought. And the first instance that I could think of was the first time I was catcalled when I was 15, which is what the first verse is about. And then the second verse is about being at a party in college where a guy tried to get me drunk and I realized that he was not the nice guy that he appeared to be, the quarterback-type that he appeared to be. And then the third verse is about me knowing that a man who presented himself as a feminist in my community was actually a predator and being unable to speak out about it because I wasn’t actually one of his victims.”
“Now I avoid the woods. Now I know the wolves.”
“Wolves” by Jensen McRae
What catapults this retelling to the next level are McRae’s haunting vocals which evolve with each new verse and iteration of the chorus. As the song progresses, the raspiness of her voice is greater and you can hear the way she painfully chokes out her truths. Even with all of these factors in play, the most difficult part of this song comes in the form of an outro. As the outro plays out, you are left to sit and reflect on not only the experiences that McRae shares, but also the stories that you’ve heard as well as your own experiences. While the song elicits real pain from listeners, it is also important to keep in mind the lyric “thank God women learn to whisper” as it urges women to speak out and use the power of their own voices.
The penultimate track in McRae’s Are You Happy Now?, “My Ego Dies At The End,” is a song about “growing up and losing yourself.”
Lamenting lyrics depicting failed attempts at salvation (“tried baptism, but it felt like burning”) resulting in the inevitable death of self help to cement this track’s place in the ultimate “sad girl” playlist. McRae leaves audiences with these final thoughts, “Who am I? I’ve lost the thread. My ego dies at the end.”
Are You Happy Now? does not come with an answer to “who am I?” It doesn’t offer words of encouragement or tell you that “you’re perfect just the way you are.” It offers no reason why or justification for the wolves that you may encounter in the woods, but it does make a promise with its final song, “Make You Proud.” The song reminds listeners, “Darling, the world’s not against you. Someday you’ll climb out. Don’t hurt yourself, give me a chance to make you proud.”
Make sure to show Are You Happy Now? some love by streaming it. It is out now on all streaming platforms. If you want to listen to more amazing music by Jensen McRae, check out some of her covers, and other original music. Want to see her perform live? She is currently on Tour with Amos Lee and will be touring with Corrine Bailey Rae later in the summer (check tour dates below). For more news and reviews about your favorite artists, make sure to check back with Glasse Factory!
2022 LIVE DATES W/ AMOS LEE
April 8 – Portland, ME
April 9 – Lynn, MA
April 11 – Burlington, VT
April 12 – New Bedford, MA
April 14 – New York, NY
April 15 – Philadelphia, PA
April 16 – Amherst, MA
April 18 – Albany, NY
April 20 – Pittsburgh, PA
April 22 – Milwaukee, WI
April 23 – Madison, WI
April 24 – Minneapolis, MN
April 26 – Kansas City, MO
April 27 – Memphis, TN
April 29 – Knoxville, TN
April 30 – Asheville, NC
2022 LIVE DATES W/ CORINNE BAILEY RAE
July 10 – Chandler, AZ
July 13 – Santa Barbara, CA
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