Times Like These Lyrics Breakdown: Addison Rae Gets Real About Growing Up

There’s this moment in Addison Rae’s Times Like These where she asks, almost conversationally, “Am I too old to blame my dad?” and suddenly the whole song shifts.

It’s not the kind of line you expect from someone who built her career on perfectly choreographed TikToks, but here we are on June 6, 2025, with the sixth single from her debut album Addison, and it feels completely honest in a way that catches you off guard.

The thing about this track is how it captures that specific brand of early-twenties confusion where you’re simultaneously too young and too old for everything.

Too young to have it all figured out, too old to use your childhood as an excuse.

Rae gets at something that feels deeply familiar—that weird liminal space where you’re supposed to be an adult but you’re still processing things that happened when you were fifteen.

What’s refreshing about Times Like These is that it doesn’t pretend to solve anything.

The whole song is basically Rae working through her thoughts in real-time, which is probably why it doesn’t feel like typical pop music.

When she sings about whether to eat what she wants or worry about feeling “less tight,” she’s not building toward some empowering chorus about self-acceptance.

She’s just… admitting the thought exists. And somehow that admission feels more honest than any anthem could.

The production, handled by ELVIRA and Luka Kloser, has a distinctly ’90s feel that makes sense once you think about it.

There’s something about that sound—simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking—that mirrors the emotional state of the lyrics. It’s moody without being depressing, danceable without being escapist.

The music video, directed by photographer Ethan James Green, shows Rae getting ready, working with dancers, and moving through creative spaces.

There’s a focus on the behind-the-scenes moments—makeup application, costume adjustments, rehearsal—but it’s all still very much part of the performance itself.

The video doesn’t try to hide that it’s constructed; instead it makes the construction part of the show.

The visual treatment also reverses the colour progression from her Diet Pepsi video, moving from vibrant colour into black and white.

It suggests a different relationship with visibility—less about emerging into the light than about questioning what that light actually illuminates.

That father question has become the song’s most quoted lyric for good reason.

It captures something specific about growing up in the social media age, where your formative experiences become content and your family dynamics become part of your public narrative.

There’s real weight to wondering when you stop being allowed to blame the people who shaped you, especially when that shaping happened in public view.

Times Like These works because Addison Rae seems genuinely surprised by her own thoughts.

When she admits to being “caught up in my head,” it doesn’t feel like she’s performing confusion for relatability points.

It feels like she’s actually confused and decided to make a song about it.

The track’s ’90s influences connect to a tradition of music made for processing feelings in real-time—the kind of songs that soundtracked late-night drives and bedroom dancing sessions throughout that decade.

There’s something both deeply personal and universally recognisable about the emotional register Rae hits here.

The most interesting thing about this song might be how it sidesteps the usual narrative about social media stars “transitioning” to “real” music.

Rae isn’t rejecting her platform or apologizing for it; she’s using it as raw material for something more complex.

The result feels neither like traditional pop nor like TikTok content—it occupies its own space.

Coming nearly four years after her first attempt at music with Obsessed in 2021, Times Like These represents a significant evolution.

Where that earlier track felt more conventional, this new material—following singles like Diet Pepsi and Aquamarine—suggests an artist who’s found her actual voice rather than the one she thought she was supposed to have.

There’s wit in how she handles the meta-aspects of her situation without getting lost in them.

The line about her “song on the radio” acknowledges the surreal circularity of modern fame without making that the whole point.

She’s processing her experience in real-time, which means sometimes the processing becomes part of the product.

The song ultimately suggests that the most interesting art might come from people who refuse to choose between being authentic and being strategic—who instead find ways to be both, or neither, or something entirely different altogether.

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Addison Rae Times Like These Lyrics

Verse 1
I know you like when I wear this dress
I feel best when I’m wearin’ less
If I dye my hair bleach blonde
Maybe then I’ll turn you on
Do I eat what I want tonight
Or will it make me feel less tight?
I’m so caught up in my head
Wanna take back what I said

Pre-Chorus
I’m so confused

Chorus
My life moves faster than me
Can’t feel the ground beneath my feet (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
No matter what I try to do
In times like these, it’s, it’s how it has to be, yeah
How it has to be

Verse 2
Don’t wanna get too close, I’m scared
Do you hate me, or do you care?
Think about all the time I spent
Feeling lost, but I’m found again
Should I jump in the unknown
Or is it better to know how it unfolds?
Am I too young to be this mad?
Am I too old to blame my dad?

Pre-Chorus
I’m so confused

Chorus
My life moves faster than me
Can’t feel the ground beneath my feet (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
No matter what I try to do
In times like these, it’s, it’s how it has to be
It’s not my fate in the end
Let go of all that could’ve been (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
No matter what I try to do
In times like these, it’s, it’s how it has to be, yeah
How it has to be

Post-Chorus
Head out the window, my song on the radio
Head out the window, let’s see how far I’ll go
Head out the window, my song on the radio
Head out the window, let’s see how far I’ll go

Bridge
I’m so confused, I’m so confused
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah

Chorus
(Ah) My life moves faster than me
Can’t feel the ground beneath my feet (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
No matter what I try to do
In times like these, it’s, it’s how it has to be (Ah)
It’s not my fate in the end (In the end)
Let go of all that could’ve been (Ah-ah-ah-ah)
No matter what I try to do
In times like these, it’s, it’s how it has to be, yeah
How it has to be

Outro
Head out the window (Head out the window)
Head out the window (Let’s see how far I’ll go)