TOO YOUNG TO BE SAD
Every song on Tate McRae’s sophomore EP deals with the all-consuming nature of heartache, but the Canadian singer-songwriter and Up Next artist swears she doesn’t dwell. “\[The title\] *TOO YOUNG TO BE SAD* is cool because it kind of negates everything I say in the songs,” she tells Apple Music. “I sing about intense heartbreak and how much I care about things, but the title is like, ‘Yeah...but I don’t have time to think about all that. I’ve got to live my life.’” Indeed, the project, which features her breakout hits “slower” and “you broke me first,” is notably mature and self-aware in its reflections. Rather than waste verses counting all the ways she misses him, McRae more often flips the lens on herself, recounting her missteps and the lessons she’s learned. “I keep falling for the bad ones/The always-make-me-sad ones,” she sings on “bad ones,” a trap-textured ballad about tripping on the wrong guys. \"But I\'m kinda sick and tired, and you\'re so selfish/Say that I\'m not coming back to you.”
Although Tate McRae rose to fame as a contestant on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, she quickly transitioned to brooding pop music; her 2020 debut EP, All the Things I Never Said, contained a song co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell ("Tear Myself Apart'). A year later, the follow-up, Too Young to Be Sad, is even more sullen without forsaking tunefulness ("R U OK") or danceable beats ("Bad Ones"). Included is "You Broke Me First," McRae's first Billboard Top 20 single.