Called “electrifying” by The Huffington Post and “phenomenal” by The New York Times, Grace McLean is a multi-hyphenate actor-singer-writer. Stephen Holden of The New York Times proclaims, “Ms. McLean’s voice [is] a flexible instrument with unexpected reserves of power … behind her playful adventurousness lies a well of passion.”
McLean’s newly-inked record deal to Meridian/ECR Music Group (Sony) has already led to two breakthrough singles from her forthcoming debut album My Lovely Enemy, out May 10th. Now, she’s set to release the album’s third single “Albertine” on February 6th.
An accomplished performer (and currently rehearsing for her next role on Broadway, President Woodrow Wilson in Suffs), McLean’s songwriting has been praised as, “Savvy” by Vulture, and “Musically complex, dramatically abstract and … intensely intimate in style” by Broadway World.
Much like recording-artist contemporaries St. Vincent and Tune-Yards, McLean pursues both the visceral and intellectual on her new album—and its new single, “Albertine.”
“I borrowed the name of Proust’s lover in Remembrance of Things Past for this song, because of a description he gives of her when they first meet—she appears fractured to Proust, with every changing angle or shift in light she’s different, a new person. She’s slippery and he can’t quite get a handle on who she is,” explains McLean. “Which ‘Albertine’ is the real one? Is it Proust who creates or perceives these differences and can each one be true? Is she reliable? Is he unreliable? I wanted to take that notion of an unknowable, unpredictable, and capricious lover and write about how the moment the delicate, exquisite, and irreversible tear in the relationship may finally bring clarity.”
The cold, close vocals on “Albertine” are an intimate, whispered confession in a sharp and bracing landscape. The heart swells from strings coupled with aloof, dissonant backing vocals which lead toward an explosive, and stabbing climax. The puzzle of the person McLean sings about is left unsolved, but the puzzler finds strength in abandoning the search for new pieces.
Producer Justin Goldner adds, “The lyric of this song is somewhat opaque at first, but then vividly (and chillingly) narrative. As the lyrics are unclear as to who in the relationship is drawn to the other (and who holds the power), the air gradually fills over an initially sparse bass, cajón, and vocal-percussion groove, with more difficult-to-identify wispy, alluring textures. Orchestral elements begin to filter in—at first statically—and then with more momentum as the lyric overlaps itself and begins to gain urgency. Subtly bubbling synths propel the energy from beneath, like a pot of water on the verge of boiling.”
Indeed, as McLean’s lyric portrays the relinquishment/release of the object of the song (are they flying or falling?), all of the elements Goldner describes suddenly boil over at once, and we hear instruments made from (literal) wind rushing, swooping and alarm-like gestures from strings and guitar, a deep claxon foghorn, and overdriven drums thundering out unpredictable rhythms and uneven phrases depicting a shocking and titillating fall from the highest heights.
Produced and recorded by Justin Goldner, mixed by Jack DeBoe (Jean Baptiste, Tyler the Creator, Yebba) and mastered by Blake Morgan (Lenny Kravitz, Lesley Gore, Janita), “Albertine” is out February 6th, and McLean’s debut album My Lovely Enemy will be released on May 10th.
Grace McLean is a Writer-In-Residence at Lincoln Center Theater where her first original musical In The Green was commissioned and produced, received a 2020 Richard Rodgers Award, and a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical. McLean was awarded Best Score from the Brooklyn Film Festival in 2021, and the Black Bear Award for Best Sound (Score) at the Athens International Film Festival in 2022. She has had two artistic ambassadorships with the US State Department touring Pakistan (2015) and Russia (2018), and her band performed in both the 2015 and 2016 Lincoln Center American Songbook series. She is a recipient of a Vivace Award for Musical Theater (2023), the Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theater Wing (2021) and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Emerging Artist Award (2017). Grace is one of Broadway Women’s Fund’s Women to Watch (2021), a member of The Civilians R&D Group (2019-2020), and a MacDowell Fellow (2018).
Connect with Grace McLean