If 2021’s ‘Planet Her’ is a glowing fantasy world of shiny pop and alien attract, then Doja Cat’s fifth album ‘Vie’ is supposed to be its “masculine” musical sister: an intimate, sensual experience threaded with zappy synths and funk bass. The album not often feels assertive in a historically male-coded method; as a substitute, it thrives on texture, groove and vocal fluidity, making a seductive, immersive expertise that refuses to take a seat nonetheless. Doja’s metamorphic vocal supply – shifting from fluttery falsettos to animated rap scratches – is the glue, scratching, spinning and looping over the beats like a turntablist teasing vinyl.
Early missteps spotlight the album’s stress between intention and execution. Contemplating the album’s ’80s inspirations, the lead single ‘Jealous Kind’ is a cliché interpretation with shimmery, upbeat melodies paired with romantic despair, making it really feel like a weak introduction to the album. Equally, ‘{Couples} Remedy’ and ‘Stranger’ gradual momentum, providing high quality manufacturing however little that compels motion.
However these minuscule slips are overshadowed the second ‘Beautiful’ blasts by your audio system – when groove, sensuality and intelligent playfulness attain full pressure. It exudes debonair confidence, making you wish to slink around the globe such as you’re Jessica Rabbit. ‘All Mine’ demonstrates Doja’s vocal dexterity, her excessive, jazzy, bluesy register floating above the beat earlier than she cuts again into it like a DJ spinning vinyl. In ‘Take Me Dancing’, the album’s sole function SZA arrives as a cameo relatively than a crutch, lending a multigenerational pleasure paying homage to Cameo’s ‘Sweet’ and ‘Phrase Up!’ however by no means overshadowing Doja’s command of the observe. Throughout these songs, she proves that her vocals are each instrument and performer – seductive, playful and endlessly creative.
All through ‘Vie’, Doja doesn’t lean into brute masculinity in the way in which you’d suppose; as a substitute, seizing dominance by feminine-coded strikes like jealousy, seduction, and emotional manipulation. She’s nonetheless authoritative, simply cloaked in softness relatively than swagger. There’s a glimpse on ‘Lipstain’, which is an ideal snapshot of ladies’s playful, biting energy as she snarls over the nostalgic beat: “Each woman’s a queen, however I’m the boss / We gotta mark our territory for them canines, woman.” However when she lastly flirts with stylish informal misandry on ‘AAAHH MEN!’, she faucets into one thing nearer to true attack-dog masculinity, battling with the push-and-pull of being attracted but repulsed by the male species.
Doja’s manufacturing selections amplify this impact. Highly effective ’80s-style synths, slapping basslines and occasional trendy 808s mix to maintain the album transferring and interesting. ‘Acts of Service’, ‘Make It Up’ and ‘Foolish! Enjoyable!’ layer lush, bluesy chords over warped synths to create sultry, body-forward grooves. By the cinematic nearer ‘Come Again’, it feels just like the credit rolling on an ’80s coming-of-age movie: reflective, glimmering and filled with decision after a kaleidoscopic journey by love and want.
‘Vie’ proves that Doja Cat stays pop’s final shapeshifter, providing an album that strikes, seduces and entertains by itself phrases. Now utilizing nostalgic power-pop as her car, Doja’s voice – morphing, scratching, fluttering and crooning – drives it with full throttle, retaining each observe alive. It’s intimate, playful, and downright enjoyable, and as soon as it will get its tenterhooks into you, it received’t let go.
Particulars
- Report label: HYBE / UMG
- Launch date: August 12, 2024
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