Two years ago, Doja Cat released Scarlet, her 4th studio album. Punchy, experimental and a bit controversial, the abandonment of her spacey and feminine melodies was startling. The essence of devilish visuals, a shaved head and lack of eyebrows made fans question; is this the new Doja Cat? Now, in 2025, the horns have been dropped, and the fire has been extinguished. Doja is back. Vie, primarily produced by Jack Antonoff and Y2K, sees Doja dip back into her pop roots. The record, with 15 tracks, explores the sexiness and musical influence of the 80’s, with a focus on love and the power of femininity in intimacy.
Vie takes visual/production inspiration from the 80’s: the era of fashion, cinema, and MTV. The period saw rise to new and still relevant pop icons today, such as Whitney Houston, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Vie is a wonderful and effective celebration of this era, referencing artists that changed pop culture and music as we know today. Lead single ‘Jealous Type’ presents this era both sonically and visually, with a heavy synth production, Janet Jackson-esque melody and a cinematic MTV style music video. ‘AAAHH MEN!’, a personal favourite of mine, uses the 80’s reference even more explicitly, interpolating the introductory music of popular sci-fi series ‘Knight Rider’, released in 1982.
The standout element of Vie lies within its vocals: we have never heard Doja Cat like this before. Tracks such as ‘Happy’, ‘All Mine’, and ‘Stranger’ display her powerful yet airy vocals the best. While we have heard peeks on her impressive voice in songs such as ‘Can’t Wait’ or ‘Often’ from her previous record Scarlet, Doja has newfound confidence in showing off her voice much more frequently. However, we are still given the Doja style of vocals we know and love, a master of the craft she has not forgotten how to use. She impressively balances her singing moments with her rap verses; quick and raspy.
Personally, earlier tracks such as ‘Gorgeous’, ‘AAAHH MEN!’ and ‘Stranger’ are the clear stand outs of Vie. They have incredibly rich production, so different yet coherent to one another. ‘AAAHH MEN!,’ a punky rap anthem, carries the silliness yet acclaimed rap status of Doja, as we saw in Scarlet. It stands out within the sea of synth-pop and R&B of Vie yet fits in beautifully. Whereas ‘Gorgeous’ beautifully represents one of the standout funk R&B tracks, with a silky melody and punchy beat.
However, where this album experiences a fault is with how cohesive some tracks are, making some fall short to bigger, more expansive tracks. The latter half of this album experiences a slight fall off. Previous fan favourites ‘Lipstain’ and ‘Acts of Service’ personally do not live up to the hype they were teased at before the album initially dropped. I do not think this is because they are bad songs, but I blame this more on other songs with a similar sound to be simply better, like ‘Stranger.’ Other than ‘AAAHH MEN!’, all the others fall into a similar genre. While I enjoy Doja Cat’s skill of being able to make a record sound like a puzzle that fits together perfectly, such as Planet Her, I believe that Vie sometimes fits together a bit too perfectly.
Despite this, Vie is a major success and great continuation of a legendary discography for Doja Cat. It is a clean-up of her previous playful and feminine pop sound, oozing confidence we had not seen before on Planet Her, Hot Pink or even debut record Amala.
8.5/10
