Jensen Mcrae – I Don't Know How But They Found Me...Again (Pink 2-LP Vinyl) Vinyl Record

I Don't Know How But They Found Me...Again! (Deluxe) is the deluxe version of Jensen McRae’s critically acclaimed 2025 album I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! (“The stunning second album from young singer-songwriter McRae marks the arrival of a major talent.” -Esquire), out July 24 digitally and September 18 on vinyl via Dead Oceans.

Alongside the original album’s tracklist, the Deluxe release features twelve new songs widely available for the first time: stripped-back versions of songs written before the recording of I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! had finished, live favourites heard on McRae’s recent headline tours and festivals appearances, a new version of “Mother Wound” featuring Maisie Peters as well as new tracks elsewhere featuring contributions from Brandi Carlile and Brittany Spencer.

On the new tracks, McRae explains: “There were so many songs I wrote after writing but before we finished recording the second album that still felt like they lived in this world--very much coming to terms with the reality that no one was going to save me from myself, and that healing is something I would ultimately have to do on my own. I think the sparseness aptly reflects the solitude that is required of that kind of healing--although there are of course a couple songs that required a team to put together and feel right.”

From the very beginning, fans have fallen in love with Jensen McRae for the sharp, evocative and clear-eyed songwriting. "The most profound choices of my life often felt like things I did before I was ready to do, and I had to grow into them,” says McRae. Her songs have a way of giving shape to these leaps, cliff jumps and trust falls, and on her 2025 album, I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!, Jensen McRae went further than ever, evolving from a promising young artist to a fully grown songwriter and star.

An avid journaler, McRae has been breathlessly documenting her existence since she was 18. Her first album, Are You Happy Now?, was a mission statement for the artist who grew up an automatic outsider: a Black Jewish girl from Los Angeles, hellbent on making folk music in spite of the world's attempts to box her into other, more stereotypically Black genres. McRae looked to her songwriting heroes (Alicia Keys, Carole King, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder) to build a sonic world all her own. As her audience grew and with myriad doors began unlocking, it "became the record of my coming-of-age. But it was a quiet coming-of-age, one that mostly took place inside my own head."

Next, I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! took place against the backdrop of romantic turbulence and McRae's rapidly growing audience. "I had never been in love before," McRae said. "Not really. And then I had two life-altering relationships back to back in my early twenties. This album was primarily an exploration about how love and intimacy knock the wind out of you, can take your legs out from under you." She has also had multiple viral moments, including in the run up to writing I Don’t Know How But They Found Me!, when McRae posted a solo verse and chorus online, little more than a piece of a demo, and it took off. Covers, duets, and an avalanche of new fans followed (including the likes of Justin Bieber, Stormzy, and Dan Nigro to name a few); the song was the beginning of "Massachusetts", which would become her first Dead Oceans release.

McRae ventured to North Carolina to record I Don't Know How But They Found Me! with Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Suki Waterhouse, Bon Iver), also enlisting the help of Hippo Campus's Nathan Stocker on guitar, Bon Iver's Matthew McCaughan on drums, and her younger brother, Holden McRae, on keys. "It felt like summer camp. None of us wanted to leave," McRae said. "It was such a joyous ten days of pure creative expression." In the process, I Don't Know How But They Found Me! found its footing--a vibrating, urgent collection of songs moored by razor-sharp lyrical specificity and timeless pop melodies.

The unusual title of her second album? Taken from a line in McRae's favorite film, Back to the Future. A key protagonist survives a hail of bullets, and the image resonated with McRae. “I really connected with the idea that I could've easily collapsed beneath the weight of what happened to me, but I didn't. I didn't even know it,” McRae says, “but I was bulletproof the whole time."