So Close To What

21 year-old Tate McRae has returned with her album So Close To What. As a fan of her 2023 album THINK LATER, I was looking forward to this release. I find McRae’s style to be unique - and fun. Her songs feel as though they are designed to be danced to (because they are), and her choreography never misses. That being said, I found So Close To What to lack the sonic variety that THINK LATER offered. Wheras THINK LATER songs were distinctly different, the So Close To What tracks sound similair one another and tend to blend together. There were not as strong of highs and lows as seen in THINK LATER. In this sense, the album feels boring, uninteresting, and shallow at times. I also feel as though her writing has taken a turn for the worst. This is part of a larger trend in the declining quality of pop lyrics in recent years, a phenomenon spearheaded by Ms. Sabrina Carpenter. Low-quality writing especially when singing about sex (as McRae does) is distracting and can’t help but appear elementary. Still, I know love (feat. The Kid LAROI) is the record’s top track. On the whole, I don’t evnision the So Close To What tracks topping the charts in the same way that those of THINK LATER did. 

UPDATED REVIEW: While So Close To What is certainly not McRae's lyrical peak, it has grown on me as a record. It is most definitely more simple than THINK LATER, but it is nonetheless an energetic pop record relaying the chronicles of a 21 year-old star. Various tracks from the record have made their way onto my pop playlists (especially Siren Sounds, which was the bonus track but definitely should have been included on the original record). No, it’s not sophistication. But combined with McCrae’s fierce choreo (and hairography) in her music videos and on-stage, I think the tracks are brought to life in a special way. I’ve come to appreciate many of the songs for perhaps what they were intended to be all along: nasty girly-pop anthems of a dancing diva (with a 2000’s siren flare). Nothing more.