Fall hard, heartbreaker

Triple threat, Tate McRae, just put out her second studio album called THINK LATER. This release has confirmed McRae as a pop star, with flooding comments naming her a Canadian Sporty Spice and the Britney Spears of this generation. From Calgary, Alberta, McRae was raised as a hockey fan. Her album imagery and fashion choices are tagged with hockey references that keep her roots alive. The sassy badass energy of THINK LATER is a transformation from McRae’s debut album, and her fans are loving it.

The album opens with “cut my hair” an intro that emphasizes McRae’s maturation, she’s “Been playing nice little too long.” Now is the time to leave her good girl side behind and make some changes in appearance and attitude. Track two “greedy” is a high energy single about gaining that newfound confidence. The striking lyric “I would want myself” proves that McRae no longer depends on the validation of others. She is empowered by her own potential. It’s hard enough just to know her let alone get in a relationship with her.

McRae shares moments throughout the album where she is still hung up on a past relationship. Track three “run for the hills” has a drama-pop tone with sentimental lyrics that reminisce about someone who touched her “Straight to the heart.” Now the touch feels more like a cut and she knows “Deep down that it’s never gon’ ever be us.” As much as McRae tries to stay away from this person, track four “hurt my feelings” reveals her risky desire to get them back even if it’s painful. She is “Messed up dreaming” about their girlfriend leaving and doing things that aren’t polite.

Track five “grave” takes the energy down with a synth ballad. McRae is wrapped up in fixing a broken relationship. Upon each second chance, she is dragged deeper into someone else’s grave, “I could never really change you like I thought that I could / I was trying to make us something out of nothing.” Even after saying goodbye “Like a hundred million times” McRae “Just can’t stay done.” In the guitar track “stay done” McRae can’t seem to erase the slivers of infatuation. She is aware that it is dumb, yet she keeps circling around and around. Eventually, McRae changes her mind “Like it’s origami” and sends kisses to her past lovers. “Exes” her second pre-released single, is a prominent IDGAF, dance it off moment. She takes the power back and sarcastically apologizes to the boys who still love her.

Track eight “we’re not alike” is a message to an ex-friend. McRae acknowledges her poor judgment in trusting someone who ends up breaking girl code…multiple times. “She said she was a girl’s girl, that’s a lie / She said she had my back but she had the knife.” McRae tries to “Figure it out and take a break” in track nine “calgary” by taking listeners on a journey to her hometown.

The title track “think later” has a heavy electric beat that pulses like the hearts she’s seen break. If it’s wrong to want someone, to be reckless with love, then she’ll live with a “guilty conscience” as stated in track 11. The album concludes with “plastic palm trees,” a ballad with an acoustic guitar line and confessional lyrics about having dreams that turn out different than expected. One interpretation is that the palm trees act as symbolism for LA and everything that comes with fame; keeping friends, entering a new dating world, feeling lonely, appearing happy for cameras, and leaving an old life behind. As a competitive dancer turned pop singer, McRae is presented with a different fast paced reality at age 20. The lifestyle from her “Deadbeat town / With nothing better to do” is forever changed.