Jensen McRae has turned her “preemptive” Phoebe Bridgers cover ‘Immune’ into a real song.
The rising LA musician went viral earlier this month when she shared her take on what she imagined might be Bridgers’ 2023 album opener.
“in 2023 Phoebe Bridgers is gonna drop her third album & the opening track will be about hooking up in the car while waiting in line to get vaccinated at dodger stadium and it’s gonna make me cry,” she tweeted at the time.
McRae also shared a short video of her playing the song. “Wait four hours in the sun/ In line at Dodger Stadium/ I’m not scared of dogs or getting vaccinated,” she sang in the clip. The video made its way to Bridgers, who retweeted it with an “oh my god”.
Now, McRae has turned the snippet into a full song and “vaccination anthem”. “This pandemic has coloured pop culture permanently, whether we like it or not,” she explained in a note.
“On the way to us, almost inevitably, are pandemic romcoms and pandemic novels and, in my case, pandemic songs. This song came about partly as a joke, a parody of one of my favourite songwriters of all time, Phoebe Bridgers, who specialises in dark, spare, precise lyrics about Our Unprecedented Times.”
She explained that, after going viral with the clip, her and her producer Rahki decided to finish the song and “turn it into something that sounds like me”. “It’s about how the emotional stakes of our relationships have been ratcheted up in light of global calamity, about hipsters and science and dogs and love,” she added.
“What will we say to each other/ When the needle goes in?” McRae sings on the full version. “What will be to each other/ If the world doesn’t end?” Listen to ‘Immune’ above now.
Bridgers is supporting McRae’s unexpected success too. “Shut the fuck[ing] door,” she wrote on Twitter, sharing a story about the newcomer fleshing out the track.
