I Used to Think I Could Fly

McRae told NME in 2021 that she analysed the "structures" of albums like Frank Ocean's Blonde (2016), Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019) and After Hours by the Weeknd (2020) as possible inspirations for the structure of her upcoming album.[2] She commenced writing the album in June 2021.[4] She explained to People in February 2022 that a number of her songs were "just [her] diary entries" and that when she has "ugly feelings" she writes them down.[5]

McRae explained that she had the idea of naming her album "I Used To Think I Could Fly" as she's always had an obsession with flying and is able to fly in her dreams.[6] She notes the concept behind the album title is the idea that the fearlessness and lack of insecurity that accompanies youth begins to fade when faced with the harsh realities of growing up.[4][6][7] The album chronicles her journey turning 18, going through a break-up[8] and moving to Los Angeles to pursue her music career.[7]

McRae announced that she had finalized the track listing for the album and submitted it to her label on March 8, 2022,[2] and she revealed the title and cover on April 1, 2022.[9]After the album was originally set to have 12 tracks,[10] McRae confirmed the inclusion of the track "What's Your Problem?" when the official track list was announced on April 11, 2022, bringing the total number of tracks up to 13.[11]

Moreover, Tate shared on April 17, 2022, about the song “Boy X“ on her instagram story: “fun fact “boy x“ on my album used to be over 5 minutes long. we literally wrote a full story novel and had to shorten it lol“.[12]