Heavily influenced by her most recent breakup, Tate McRae finally released her third album, “THINK LATER,” on December 8. Currently at 4 on the Billboard 200, here is my ranking, and thoughts, on this piece of art.
14. “greedy” 3.5/5
13. “exes” 3.5/5
“greedy” and “exes” are her most popular off the album as they were teased heavily on TikTok as singles in advanced. Although they are my least favorite, they are still good songs and have been extremely statistically successful. “greedy” is hanging on in the Billboard Top 100, at nine. Two months after release, it reached its peak 6.282 million daily streams. “exes” continues to be popular on TikTok, but doesn’t have as impressive records.
12. “cut my hair” 3.5/5
“cut my hair” is one of her songs that seem more like it was built around fitting the radio algorithm. Because I do not really enjoy being able to tell how fitting a song is for the radio, it is not my favorite song.
11. “plastic palm trees” 4/5
This song is last on the album and one of the most simple. Just short of reaching my top 10, it just did not have something that “think later” does.
10. “think later” 4/5
While it ranks 10 on my list, it is the title track and very upbeat. Tate stated at one of her shows that she wrote “think later” after Ryan Tedder (a well known producer and lead singer for OneRepublic) asked her what the most ‘think later’ thing she’s ever done was. Because of the straight truth behind the song, she says that it scared her to release.
9. “messier” 4.5/5
As we get to this point in the list, it came down to very minor technicalities on how I ranked them. In reality, “messier” is still one of my favorite songs Tate has released overall. It is heart touching and talks about the feelings after a breakup and the messes created from saying things out of anger.
8. “hurt my feelings” 4.5/5
This song is less about a breakup and more about wanting something you know will hurt you. Specifically, a person you know will hold you back and cause pain instead of moving forward and growing.
7. “run for the hills” 4.5/5
Back to heavy breakup songs, this song is about the conflicting feelings of trying to stick to no contact after the end. It explores how you know the relationship could literally never work out, but you still want it to work and you revert back to that person even when you shouldn’t.
6. “guilty conscience” 4.5/5
This song is one of her completely new-sounding songs. With some of the lyrics being “All my morals shot, even it don’t faze me…kinda reckless lately,” the song illustrates the scenario of feeling the defeat and diving into only seeing the good things. Ignorance is bliss… even when you aren’t really ignorant to the truth.
5. “calgary” 4.5/5
“calgary” is one of the most vulnerable feeling songs and talks about the pain of a breakup and the choices made to deal with it. The chorus is filled with “All my habits came back around/ “Ill figure it out,” that’s what I say/Figure it out and take a break/I’ll figure it out, maybe one day.” These lyrics express the denial of the situation and how toxic love can make your own thoughts.
4. “want that too” 4.5/5
This song finally reaches the point after the breakup where you realize you are better off where you are. It discusses the scenario in which you are finally moving on and then they show up out of nowhere to ruin it for you. During the second chorus she says, “I’m not waiting for your call, but I know you will/That’s the only hand you have left to play.” This illustrates the scenario and has the irritating tone.
3. “we’re not alike” 5/5
Now to the top three, my favorites. “we’re not alike” discusses the feelings after getting stabbed in the back. This song is in the running for becoming one of the most popular with how catchy and relatable the lines of the chorus are. This includes, “She’s said she was a girl’s girl, that’s a lie/ Said she had my back, but she had a knife/I could never do it once and she did it twice.” The idea of a ‘girl’s girl’ is putting your friends above a relationship and following basic ‘girl code’ and this song plays out the fact that it doesn’t always go the way expected. Although this song is one of the most repetitive, the lyrics are relatable enough to make the repetition useful… scream in the car worthy.
2. “grave” 5/5
Much like “calgary”, “grave” is one of the most emotionally taxing songs. Its my favorite because of the emotion and available application of this song. While a lot of songs are heavily filled with romantics, this song could be applied to any relationship and has much deeper lyrics and tone.
1. “stay done” 5/5
This song is, once again, about the back and forth after a breakup. With lines like “I told you ‘Goodbye’ like, a hundred million times/ I know I sound so dumb/ But I just can’t stay done with you” These lyrics refer to how hard it is to let go of a relationship after you put so much time and emotion into it. The definitive factor between “stay done” or “grave” being my top song was left on how often I felt that I would listen to it.
