When asked about the titular person of his 2007 breakout release, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon succinctly remarked, “Emma isn’t a person. Emma is a place that you get stuck in. Emma’s a pain that you can’t erase.”
18 years later, Jensen McRae’s “Savannah” circles back on the sentiment and drives it down South, albeit via a pointedly sunny, Californian sonic landscape. Much like Emma, “Savannah” — and indeed, its parent album, the cheekily titled I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! — is marked by the haunting remnants of a lost love.
Why “Savannah” Is A Premium Breakup Song
Steeped in strummy, shiny FM radio acoustic pop — the kind that would have somewhat condescendingly been classified as “adult contemporary” in the 1990s and 2000s — it would also have probably soundtracked a Pretty White Kids with Problems series on WB.
Which is to say that its unique selling point is inevitably the fact that McRae is a Black female singer-songwriter in a predominantly White genre. While the LA-based musician’s vocal styling often veers a little too close to the territory of label mate Phoebe Bridgers (she once went viral for a Bridgers parody song) and her songwriting takes obvious cues from Taylor Swift’s penchant for lyrical specificities (of whom she is an avowed and studious admirer), she possesses enough craft and candor that render her material with affecting pathos.
Like Bridgers and Swift, Jensen is adept at luxuriating in the small details and using these soft, seemingly mundane strokes to paint a broad, enveloping emotional landscape. It’s in the way she drags out the vowels in the word “Savannah” or how her voice rises in fury when declaring her former lover a false prophet, then in disgust when chastising him for calling women bitches. You simply cannot help but be bowled over by the heart-rending vignettes that she has expertly sketched across her two studio albums.
What makes “Savannah” a standout, however, is its sense of defiance. Rather than predictably languish away in post-breakup melodrama, McRae goes the extra mile by not only telling off her ex but also coming to the very scene of the crimes he committed … with someone new. Pettiness has never sounded so life-affirming.
Savannah, Georgia has a reputation for being a haunted city — and accordingly, “Savannah” is about being haunted by the memory of a person — but here, it is not merely a place that McRae gets stuck in: it is an entry point for healing, the slow erasing of lost love’s pains, the steady rebuilding of burned bridges.
What’s Next For Jensen McRae?
Yes, the Tracy Chapman comparisons — which say more about the public’s ignorance and laziness toward any Black female artist brandishing a guitar — are tired and played out. And yes, although McRae’s 2000s-era VH1-friendly excursion might be a solid groundwork for her smart, sophisticated songwriting, it would be interesting to see how her artistry unfolds as she grows beyond her influences and pastiches. In the meantime, “Savannah” will tide us over, over and over again.
I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! was released on April 25, 2025 via Dead Oceans Records. Her North American tour in support of the album is set to kick off throughout October 2025.
