When Tate McRae debuted with raw musings on teenage love and coming of age, the dancer-turned-pop singer was heralded as Canada's response to Billie Eilish. For her second album, THINK LATER, McRae toughens that first impression by becoming Canadian Sporty Spice, trading in neon sweatshirts for hockey gear. It's a classic formula: The good girl becomes a man-eater and is about to regret losing her. Too bad he's still shut him down — and THINK LATER is full of homogenous trap-pop ballads devoted to one-dimensional introspection.
To display a “more livelySelf-published, McRae assembled a roster of prominent pop writers and producers, including OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder, SZA warning sign partner Rob Bisel and Ariana Grande partner ILYA. They land on a style that is undeniably debt Bangerz and 2010's obsession with trap-pop, updated to echo SZA's love-hate longing and the Weeknd's atmospheric alt-R&B. On “Run for the Hills,” McRae explores the lure of an unhealthy relationship beneath a looming cloud of synth punctuated by single words in her head voice, as Grande raps “gimme the loot!” in “7 rings.”
Most of the album is similarly concerned with presenting McRae as the bad girl. “It's not a good night if you don't take it too far,” he winks on the arena title track (which sounds a bit like 'MIA'Bad Girls“herself). The Timbaland-inspired “greedy,” one of the record's first and best songs, is McRae at her strongest and most compelling. Other times, the pettiness is just tiresome. “We're Not the Same” is a pop punk low-key idiom about a girlfriend breaking girl code.it's like McRae tried to emulate Eilish's “Copycat” without the bite.
Throughout THINK LATER, McRae's narrator longs for the kind of toxic romance that makes Harley Quinn and the Joker seem subdued. “You're the only one who can make my blood boil/And do this shit,” he says on the heavy, mid-tempo “Messieur,” which sounds like a good reason to finally dump him. Then she says starry-eyed, “Cause you know I'm always yours/I'm so in love.” Where SZA can they plan a murder, McRae threatens to make a scene at dinner. The cycle is vicious, but worse, it's boring. Has Tate McRae ever considered protecting her peace?
There is another school of thought that likens McRae to Britney Spears, recognizing the magnetism and competitive edge of a dancer. McRae's inability to produce equally compelling music leaves her in trouble. The more comparisons it earns, the more THINK LATER she feels anonymous: she romantically clings to the negative in an attempt to prove her seriousness as a singer. Her music is loudest when she throws the ballads in the bin. When he entered the impeccably choreographed “greedy” video in a Zamboni, she looked like a budding star, and when she sings about a random guy who asks if she knows her powers, her response is completely dry: “I said, 'Let's check.'” It's a shame that the rest THINK LATER cannot muster the same easy trust.
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