Tate McRae is transforming vulnerability into art. With her new single, “All My Friends Are Fake,” the 16-year-old singer-songwriter pulls back the curtain on social facades, revealing the loneliness that breeds beneath surface-level friendships. “All My Friends Are Fake” is a plaintive but palpably relatable anthem for anyone who has ever felt themselves among a group of people but still wholly alone.
With a backdrop of sparse piano and understated beats, Tate’s airy but emotionally charged vocals are front and center. Each lyric is soaked with an almost confessional honesty, giving a sense of friendships that feel performative and shallow. The chorus is simple, but soul-crushing haunts long after the “All My Friends Are Fake” outro, reverberating the subtle sting of disillusion.
“All my friends are fake” reinforces Tate’s penchant for pairing gut-punch lyrics with otherworldly production, creating songs that feel like diary pages straight out of a flimsy notebook. Like “Tear Myself Apart” and her other breakout songs, “All My Friends Are Fake” demonstrates that McRae’s strength is her ability to take deeply personal feelings and make them feel universal.
As her star rises, one thing’s clear, Tate McRae isn’t simply another voice in the pop landscape. She’s a storyteller for the emotionally restless and just getting started.