Jensen McRae makes authentic folk-pop the internet can’t resist

As the COVID-19 vaccine began distributing more widely in early 2021, California-raised singer-songwriter Jensen McRae affectionally joked in a tweet that Phoebe Bridgers would release a song in two years about “hooking up in the car while waiting in line to get vaccinated at Dodger Stadium.”

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Bridgers didn’t release the song, but McRae did. As the tweet took off, she threaded a video of herself singing “a preemptive cover.” “Immune,” penned by McRae in Bridgers’ contemplative style, was released in full within two weeks.

“It was a perfect storm,” McRae, 27, told The Associated Press. “I was parodying Phoebe Bridgers who was becoming world famous in that exact moment. ... !was also writing about this topic that everyone was thinking about constantly because we were in lockdowns.” Bridgers reposted the video, writing simply: “oh my god.” The song preluded McRae’s debut EP, released in 2021, and album, in 2022, which led to touring gigs with Muna and Noah Kahan. Last year, she signed with Dead Oceans, the same record label that represents Bridgers. McRae’s sophomore album, the folk-pop “I Don’t Know How, But They Found Me!,” is out Friday.