Tate McRae - Think Later

The machinations of Tate McRae’s rise to Main Pop Girl status are subject to heated debate. Accusations of being an ‘industry plant’ sit between tweets from opinionated pop stans who find her particular musical brand lacklustre. Though the Canadian dancer’s debut record ‘I Used To Think I Could Fly’ was largely acclaimed for its arsenal of jagged pop weapons, conflict remains and detracts: while half her audience embraces her unabashedly referential sound, the other jeers at it. And it’s true that on follow-up ‘Think Later’, there are times where fanfare belies any fully formed direction astray from her peers. Indebted to the well-treaded paths of Julia Michaels’ acoustic pop and Ariana Grande’s so-called ‘white girl R&B’, Tate risks a familiarity that masks how interesting she can be left to her own devices - that said, it’s faultless in its mimicry. Elsewhere, however, she ups the ante of her heady dance tracks. The Pussycat Dolls-inspired choreo-pop resurgence singles ‘Greedy’ and ‘Exes’ - both certified hits - caught the devout attention of those tired of bedroom pop, while later she calls upon the clubby floor-fillers of late-noughties electronic pop for standouts ‘Hurt My Feelings’, ‘Guilty Conscience’ and the title track. On these is a taste of Tate at her most interesting, unafraid to deep dive into a bygone pop R&B eclecticism. No, ‘Think Later’ doesn’t come close to reinventing the wheel (or pop), but it does drench itself within a pop maximalism full of fuel, energy and modernity.