As if Tate McRae couldn’t get more iconic. On Feb. 19, McRae appeared on Jake Shane’s beloved Therapuss podcast where she spilled some major tea. But the one that caught my attention was when she opened up about the January 2025 leak of her upcoming album, So Close To What.
Set to release on Feb. 21, So Close to What marks McRae’s third studio album which fans have been patiently waiting for, especially after its leak. If you didn’t know, on Jan. 16, a version of the album was leaked online and in response, McRae wrote two extra songs for the album so the magic of it all wouldn’t be spoiled. On Feb. 12, the singer released the official tracklist in a very *iconic* Instagram post.
Prior to the Therapuss with Jake Shane episode, McRae attended a Feb. 18 Spotify event, where she briefly touched on her feelings about the leak, sharing that she was “devastated” and felt so out of control of her own work. “Unfortunately, a lot of the album got leaked, which was a f*cking bummer,” she said during the event, according to PEOPLE. “And I think obviously that makes you look at the project differently.”
Yet, fans still had so many questions about McRae’s *true* feelings toward the leak, and Shane stepped up to the plate because who else could get out her real feelings like her bestie? Jumping right into the heat of things, Shane asked McRae about the night she found out about the leak. “Well, I was in New York, and I got a DM while I was taking a bath,” McRae said. “I got a DM from one of my fans, and they were like ‘Girl, the whole album leaked,’ and I wasn’t really affected by it until an hour later.”
She went on to share that that night was so emotional for her, noting that her whole life was in this album. “There’s a lot sh*t that gets put into these songs and real stories. For it not to be delivered the way you want it to is a frustrating thing as an artist, and also things weren’t done,” she told Shane while laughing through the evident hurt. When the leak happened, it was only 5 weeks away from the official release, which made McRae feel out of control of her own work. She admitted to putting on a facade of being “good” but was hurting on the inside.
The singer’s frustration was evident in the episode, with her sharing that as a person who is very particular about her craft, she wanted to be able to go in and fix things and tweak minor details. But one night took that away from her, which she said was “crazy.” Despite the frustration, McRae acknowledged that her fanbase was a support system through it all with many refusing to listen to the leak since they wanted to wait for McRae to release it on her own accord. “That means so much to me,” she said.
Despite So Close to What being leaked, true fans (myself included) will be looking forward to hearing the album for the first time on Feb. 21.