17-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter Tate McRae released her second EP titled Too Young To Be Sad on Friday, March 26. McRae first rose to prominence at the age of 13 when she became the first Canadian finalist on the American reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance. Thereafter, she began performing alongside many celebrities including Justin Bieber while writing music and promoting it on Youtube. Her song One Day, released on Friday, Oct. 20, 2017, led her to a singing contract with RCA Records, where the song went on to become gold-certified in Canada. Her most recent project, Too Young To Be Sad, contains six songs that subsequently assemble on top of each other to build a magnificent storyline and convey each topic with more power and meaning than the last.

The EP starts with bad ones, a song that relies heavily on snare beats and McRae’s voice to carry out the tune. Although this song sounds like a generic pop song you hear on the radio, it is catchy, especially the pre-chorus that leads to the beat drop at the beginning of the chorus. With few instruments on the backing track, McRae relies solely on her own voice to capture the sentiment of always choosing the wrong person to form a relationship with. She easily gets the job done and has her fans devouring the lyrics.

The next song is rubberband, a song that talks about McRae slapping a rubber band on her wrist as a coping technique to overcome an attachment she had with someone. I particularly enjoyed the use of echoes in the pre-chorus and how this song didn’t rely on the use of techno beats as much to carry out the melody compared to bad ones.

The song that surprised me the most was slower. I had previously heard this song a few years ago as McRae had released it on her Youtube channel. The song was one of my favorites and led me to become a huge McRae fan. The lyrics had changed a bit from the last time I heard it and there were added instrumentals in the background. However, I enjoyed this version better as it seemed as though McRae was showing more emotion in the song and in the transitions between the chorus and the verses.

Probably the most well-known song on the EP was you broke me first. The piece was first released on Friday, April 17, and has since racked up over 850 million listens worldwide. In addition, the song made it to the Billboard charts and peaked at number one. The song then continued to stay on the Billboard charts for 46 consecutive weeks. And it’s pretty obvious why the song made it so far in the music industry. The unique echo leading to the verses that started the song created a hook that I could not get away from. Adding on to the verses is a chorus that contains hard-hitting beats so that you can clearly hear the pain McRae is trying to evoke. And to finish it off, McRae adds a bridge that repeats the question ‘What did you think would happen?’ The painfully brutal question defines the song and adds a blunt and relatable kick to the piece.

The EP ends with wish i loved you in the 90s. The song’s progression is slower and more cutthroat than the other songs on the EP. McRae admits she’s scared of this generation. She envisions a world where phones and social media don’t exist and where people would be able to find love and not be stuck in as many toxic relationships. She even points out her parent’s relationship, recalling a time when her dad had to ring her mom’s doorbell with flowers to make a good impression on her parents. The smooth and silky chorus where McRae extends the word ‘’90s’ creates a winsome close to the EP and feels as though one is covering the bedsheets over me before I sleep.

Overall, the EP exceeded my expectations of McRae’s music. Every song flowed together like an ocean wave after a hot and sunny day. The lyrics are serene and sincere and her voice adds a lavishing layer of quietude that makes her unique as an artist. From dancing to singing, it’s hard to imagine what else McRae is capable of because it seems as though she has done almost everything. Nonetheless, I am ecstatic to see what McRae builds in her next project and how she will mature through the years.