Pop is littered with one-time viral sensations struggling to make the leap to household name. Having tasted TikTok fame in 2020 with ballad You Broke Me First, 20-year-old Canadian Tate McRae watched the streams rack up (it currently has 1.27bn of them on Spotify), before disappointing with last year’s muddled debut album, I Used to Think I Could Fly. However, hasty follow-up Think Later – its title a nod to a more intuitive approach to banger-making – feels like the perfect vehicle for mainstream ubiquity.
Things have started well; excellent lead single Greedy, which channels mid-00s Timbaland, is already a global smash, while songs such as Exes and the rib-rattling title track continue down Greedy’s pop-R&B route, a melodic pocket that suits McRae’s rapid-fire delivery. She can pull off new wave too, as showcased on the fizzing, lyrically scathing We’re Not Alike, while airy ballad Grave recalls her early breakthrough via its lilting chorus.
At 14 songs, there are misfires that could have been pruned – Run for the Hills is generic, algorithmic trap-pop – but overall, Think Later feels like McRae’s ticket to the big leagues.
