"The rapper's main idea about the decade is essentially that it was a time when girls just wanted to have fun-a message very compatible with the Doja Cat experience. Swinging synth-funk cut "Take Me Dancing," another team-up with SZA, presents clubgoing as the perfect post-coital digestif. "You're so raw, boy, and you're so romantic/When you fuck me right, and then you take me dancing," Doja sings on the hook, skipping across the roller-rink-ready beat in her airy upper register."
"That fuzzy connection to the decade mostly makes for a breezy listen, but Doja runs into trouble when the pastiche boxes her in. Her singing and rapping are uncharacteristically binary on most songs, notably "Jealous Type" and R&B track "Acts of Service," where the cool melodies mostly keep time until Doja spits. This has never been a problem in her music before, but here when she switches from rapping to singing, it can feel as if she's featuring herself rather than changing direction."
"All her expression and color seems to get reserved for the rhymes. That's the case on the groovy "Couples Therapy," which features some of her deftest singing but really erupts with personality once she starts rapping. "Cussing you out, you the one I resent/Cussing you out, I delete and re-send/Sorry, I got three selves, one's 12/Sorry, you gave me hell once felt/Sorry, honeymoon phase over now," Doja raps, her repeated pauses and phrases m"
Doja Cat draws on 2000s radio and an '80s aesthetic without deep nostalgia, citing Nina Hagen as an influence and privileging a fun, carefree vibe. Collaborative tracks like "Take Me Dancing" with SZA lean into synth-funk and club-ready production, while slow jams like "All Mine" showcase harmonized, gleaming synth textures. The nostalgic pastiche yields a pleasant, breezy listening experience but occasionally constrains artistic range. Singing and rapping often operate in binary modes, particularly on "Jealous Type" and "Acts of Service," making vocal shifts feel like self-featuring rather than natural direction changes. Rap sections tend to contain the most vivid personality.
Read at Pitchfork
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