React: Tate McRae - THINK LATER
A delightful reintroduction.
I can honestly say that I've probably heard less than an hour of music from Tate McRae over my lifetime. But when THINK LATER came out a few weeks ago, everyone and their mom were telling me how good this album is.
Me being me, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to react to a new album. Especially from an artist I'm mostly unfamiliar with.
So without further ado, here is my first reaction to Tate McRae's THINK LATER.
cut my hair
Oh wow, I was not expecting the first song on the album to hit this hard. Is this a trap song? The bass is thick and hits deep, and the hi-hat pattern is super catchy, running down the center. The snare is very dry and low in the mix as well.
I haven't heard a lot from Tate, but I don't remember her voice being this gritty (in the best way possible). There's a lot of passion and anger in her voice. I love it.
I added this song to my library within the first five seconds. Not much else to say. It’s a great song.
greedy
Oh. Yeah, I've heard this song before. It's probably the song that got me to add the album to my list of reactions.
I wanna say that's a Hawaiian drum I'm hearing, but it may be something along the lines of a xylophone that's pitched up or a digital synth. It also sounds like she's blending a bit of her voice into it as the song progresses. Nice touch.
The kick drum is very bouncy. Not a whole lot of low-end there. I love the snare change between the first verse and pre-chorus.
The hi-hat pattern here is very unique and interesting. It sounds like it's a mix of an actual hi-hat and a shaker in the right channel, but it bleeds into the left channel every second snare hit.
That ending is so good. Revealing that yes, she did in fact blend her vocals with the synth.
run for the hills
Right off the bat, I love how much reverb and how wide the synth is. Her vocal seems to have about the same amount of reverb. This song is already sounding super wide.
The muted snare is a nice touch in the first verse. The pacing of her vocals here is very interesting. It's bouncing back and forth between aggressive, talking, and singing.
The backing vocals for the line, Never gon' ever be more than just something that's fucking me up is fantastic. Perfect blend of the main vocals and backing vocals. In the second verse, her only using backing vocals for you is a nice touch.
That last chorus leading to the outro of the song is very beautifully done. It's very spacious and there's a lot going on. It's one of those outros that'll take me a few listen throughs to catch everything that's going on.
hurt my feelings
Those first few lines are great. The vocal is centered, with the reverb trailing in the left and right channels.
Again, the bass here is absolutely fantastic. Very thick and digs super deep. I'm listening to this album on headphones now, but I wouldn't be surprised if I give it another pass later on a speaker setup with a proper subwoofer. Likewise, the kick drum is very bouncy, with most of its sub-bass cut out.
The snare pattern is super cool, too. Instead of the very basic snare every fourth note, there's a bit of rhythm to it.
There's almost no treble to this track. It gives Tate's vocals some time to breathe. If you listen in carefully, you can hear a hi-hat there, but it's very low in the mix.
The synth in the last chorus brings me back. It gives me early 2000s pop music vibes.
grave
Is this the first ballad of the album? I'm excited.
I think I'm noticing a pattern here. Tate really likes to have her vocal front and center, with a lot of reverb.
I absolutely love the throwaway line, So sad, what the fuck? It breaks the tension. Also, I was wrong. It's not a ballad. At least I don't think so. It was slow at first but picked up the pace in the second verse.
This song gives off skinny dipping by Sabrina Carpenter vibes. The first minute or so is very emotional and ballad-like, but then the song starts to build and the next thing you know, you're in full bop mode. This is exactly what's happening here. It even has the ramp down in the final chorus.
It's a completely different song and vibe, but it has a similar structure. I'm a fan.
stay done
Not only one but two guitars? Nice. Hopefully, we get an electric guitar solo. That would be awesome.
stay done is a song I'm excited to hear live. I can already imagine Tate and her guitar on center stage, in front of a crowd (does she even play guitar?).
I love how low the bass is in the mix. It's fairly basic in that it's playing one long note every other bar. It gives Tate's vocal and the acoustic guitar room to breathe.
This is the actual first ballad of the song. Got it. The lyrics gave me goosebumps. What really hit me is You should know it isn't normal. Yeah, I know we should break up. But I just can't stay done with you, you. This song is gonna make me cry one of these days.
exes
That was a quick break nearly halfway through the album, nice. The reversed synth at the beginning of the track is dope.
I love the pacing of the vocals to this track. It reminds me of synth stabs. Very accentuated and one word at a time in rapid succession.
If you're not listening carefully, you'll miss the synth in the second verse. It plays right down the center, but it's decently low in the mix.
The third verse is a straight up rap, with an accompanying pace change. That's not something I was expecting at all. Turns out, Tate can spit bars and I'm all here for it.
Stripping back the bass in the final pre-chorus is a nice touch.
we're not alike
The halfway point of the album. Let's hear what she's cooking up.
I like the intro here. It has a bit of an 80s pop vibe to it. The bass line is very funky. Is this the first practical drum kit being used?
If you listen carefully, you can hear the electric guitar and the synth that starts in the first chorus. They're blended and play the same notes as the bass. Very nice touch. This song is definitely giving me retro vibes.
This song is a very nice change of pace from the first half of the album.
calgary
Oh hey, another acoustic guitar.
The (pre?)-chorus is beautifully done. A great mix of acoustic guitars, bass, synth, and a kick drum. The far out muted snare in the second half of the chorus is a nice touch. Again, it gives Tate's vocals room to breathe.
Of course, it immediately switches over to a dry, unmuted (for the lack of a better term) snare in the second verse. Only for it to switch back for the remainder of the song.
calgary might be simplistic in composition, but it might end up being one of my favorite tracks on the album because of it. Sometimes, the lack of complexity is all you need.
messier
The rhyming scheme here is great, but doesn't last long. The repeating lyrics really sells it.
Messy is right. You're the only one who can boil my blood. And make that shit cut. I can feel the pain in her voice.
In the second verse, if you're listening carefully, you can hear a faint guitar down the center, and a hi-hat coming out of the right channel.
Based on the title, I thought that this might be a full-energy rock song. I was not expecting a more melo, down-tempo track. Despite that, the songwriting and imagery that comes with it are quite excellent.
think later
The title track. We're back to the super deep, hard hitting bass. The first time I'm hearing gang vocals on this album. At the beginning of the track, no less.
I wanna say it's one of those situations where she's using her voice as an instrument? If you listen closely, you can hear what sounds like her voice. It's lower in the mix and is panned ever so slightly left. It starts at around 20 seconds. The driving guitar, which is even lower in the mix, is a nice touch.
What I'm loving most about this track is the constant back and forth with the instrumentation. One moment, you have just the drum and vocal. The next, everything comes back—the synth, guitar, bass, everything.
guilty conscience
The beginning of this track reminds me a lot of old-school Rihanna with the stuttered vocals. Not just the beginning of the song. guilty conscience as a whole is giving off that nostalgic vibe.
I wish I could show you my face right now, vibing along with the beat of this song. It's so good. I'm an absolute sucker for an isolated open hi-hat.
I've spent too much time vibing to this song and missed a ton. If that's not a testament to how good this song is, I'm not sure what is.
want that too
Ooh. That thick, deep, gut punching bass combined with the guitar with a lot of reverb is fantastic. The snare drum effectively "drowning" in the bass is a nice touch.
Oooof, the bridge in this song is fantastic. Visually, it sounds like a very tame earthquake. It reminds me of the meme with the dog that's sitting in a house fire saying, "this is fine." Everything sounds like it's falling apart, yet it's trying its best to keep itself together.
Stripping back to just her vocals and guitar for the outro gives this song a nice, heartwarming exit.
I think I'm starting to fall in love with Tate's ballad tracks in addition to her high energy tracks. Or, maybe I just really like this album (edit: it’s definitely that!).
plastic palm trees
The claps being intertwined with the guitar here is fantastic. I almost missed it. Sounds like we're ending the album off with a ballad.
The message in this song hits home for me. The level of impostor syndrome is relatable. Where everything around you seems real, but in reality, none of it is. It's almost like plastic palm trees. You're putting on a face to keep the peace and nobody even noticed.
I was mostly paying attention to the lyrics here, so forgive me for the lack of commentary on the composition. As I said, this song went straight for my heartstrings.
Conclusion
Color me surprised. To be fair, I had no expectations going into this album. Outside of greedy, the last Tate McRae song I have is from several years ago, when she was releasing singles. It's been so long since I've actually heard a song from her that I had no idea what to expect at all.
To say I'm blown away is an understatement. I'm very much looking forward to listening to this album again with a proper speaker setup, and also in Dolby Atmos.
I think it's pretty obvious that THINK LATER by Tate McRae will sit in my favorite albums list.
Note: This album reaction was done after listening to Tate McRae - THINK LATER on Apple Music with Lossless Audio enabled at 24-bit, 44.1 kHz (Dolby Atmos turned off).