If you asked me a year ago to describe Tate McRae’s sound I think I could have done it pretty confidently. But now ahead of her debut album ‘i used to think i could fly’ which will be released on May 27, I couldn’t do it so confidently with her showing a diverse range to her artistry. Her newest single ‘what would you do?’ Is a callback to the angsty pop-punk energy behind her global smash hit ‘she’s all i wanna be’, which felt like a big turning point for the Canadian singer-songwriter.
Produced by Charlie Puth, Alexander 23 and Blake Slatkin, this song is all about the energy. Beginning with a pulsating guitar riff she glides into this upbeat pop-punk inspired hook. It’s not as sonically angsty as it predecessor, but there is a nostalgic Paramore and No Doubt approach to the way the production and songwriting meets, while the polished Olivia Rodrigo tone shines through.
Tate describes this as a petty song, but really I see it as her just being honest and saying it how it is. If you’re going to treat someone like shit and just be a straight-up shit person, then you deserve to have a song written about you bluntly. And that’s what this song does. There are no fancy metaphors, she just tells it at is, and questions what they would do if she treated them how they treated her. “What would you do if I leave and don’t come back? I hope it breaks you in two. If I gave back all the pain that you put me through, what would you do?” she honestly sings.
‘what would you do?’ is a playful yet honest song that explores Tate’s artistry further following the left-field ‘she’s all i wanna be’. With it’s quick and infectious hook, you will find yourself running around and screaming the important question; “what would you do?”.