Hi, everyone. Athony Mentano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of the new Doja Cat album, Vie.

Here we have the newest and fifth full-length LP from rapper, songwriter, singer, Miss Doja Cat. A record that comes after an album cycle that was chaotic in more ways than one. Not just musically, as the tracklist on this LP was one of Doja's the most versatile to date. This album also saw her recommitting to her rap roots a little bit as well with banger singles like "Paint the Town Red".

But as good as the highlights from this album were, sadly, I think this time period will mostly be remembered for a lot of Doja's extracurriculars during. For example, she spent a lot of time rejecting her fame, almost doing everything she could to kneecap it and destroy it by being hostile toward her fans as well as her own work. She even characterized the two records she dropped before this one simply as cash grabs and mediocre pop, something I'm sure genuine fans of those albums weren't happy to hear.

However, I do think with those posts and statements, she was on the level on some level, because by comparison, at least from my own perspective, it did seem like Doja was making a genuine effort to take some risks and come across a bit edgier creatively on Scarlet.

Personally, while I did think this record was a bit all over the place, broadly speaking, it was a move in the right direction, and I saw a lot of potential in Doja just being a bit more in the driver's seat, creatively. It sounds like she's doing more of exactly that on Vie although I don't know if it's happening in a way that maybe her fans anticipated.

Case in point: the lead single to this album, "Jealous Type", which is a high gloss '80s pop number with chunky synth bass lines, sleek sax, dramatic vocal leads, topical verse. It's not a bad tune by any means, but 2025 is a very odd time to be just throwing pop listeners like an '80s throwback, especially since in some ways this trend was already so five years ago. I don't think the track displayed Doja's best songwriting ever either.

Sadly, the song has seen a bit of a mild reaction chart performance-wise. It merely peaked at number 28. It's currently at 57, and there's really no sign of it bumping back up anytime soon. So clearly, from the outset, there is not quite as much demand for Doja creatively to go in this direction.

And yet she is doubling down on this exact thing with the rest of Vie, as much of the outfits and promo, production, and songwriting writing deeper into the record, too, are pretty centered around '80s aesthetics. You could actually argue Vie is Doja's most actively and purposefully focused album yet in that sense. I think that's also the case for this record topically, as there's a lot of emotional maturity and focus among these tracks as well on the topic of romance.

With this record, it is clear Doja Cat knows what she wants, and that is love. When I say that, I don't mean just a crush or some butterfly feelings to write a little pop song around. Rather, what she is seeking on this record is a significant long-term connection, as numerous songs on this record allude to stuff like building a life together, kids, as well as what it takes to make a relationship work. Because of that, what magic there is here on this album isn't so much in Doja's ability to accurately relive the sounds and vibes of the '80s. It's actually more in her approach to repurpose these sounds in a way that is fresh and creative, while also mapping out a romance that personally works for her, even if it doesn't read in a super conventional, typical love song way.

Which is why I would like to highlight the track "Aahhh Men!", a song that gripped me right from its opening moments because it samples the fucking Knight Rider theme. The theme... from Knight Rider! Which just on its face reads as a joke, but this song is actually quite serious, seriously fun and weird, as Doja delivers over these very persistent sequenced synthesizers, a lot of very odd, eerie vocal harmonies, freaky, shouty passages, too, and a lot of aggressive and animated verses about this, like weirdly toxic love-hate attraction she has with this guy or a couple of guys she has in mind.

Most of the songs on this record, though, take a much healthier approach romantically. The song "Couples Therapy" comes across instrumentally like a really groovy old-school Prince number with the falsetto vocal harmonies and little plinky keys. This is handily one of the prettiest songs Doja's ever put out. I love all the lyrics across the track about essentially working on working on it together.

There are more tributes across this record to making it work in a romantic context, understanding how love works again, like on the song, "Acts of Service", as well as "Make it Up". I also like the track "Stranger" quite a bit. While instrumentally, it's not one of the boldest moments on this record. I do appreciate the underlying sentiment about two weirdos who are maybe too weird for everybody else on the dating scene, but they're absolutely in love with each other. There's nothing really they could do or say or be that would gross the other one out to the point where they would be turned off. Because, again, their eccentricities are the appeal.

I do think on this record, Doja does a pretty decent job of exploring her weirdo side a bit more creatively. I like that. Like with the song "All Mine". First off, I did not know Doja's voice could do this. It's really the thing I would expect at this point to be on maybe more of a Janelle Monae record, and yet it's here and it sounds great. Doja not only tweaks out some really crazy vocal lines, but this track, among many others on the record, features a hilarious rap verse where Doja, of course, being a talented rapper (not just a singer) herself, has the ability to essentially not just sing on her own songs, but play as her own featured rap artist around the bridge portion of many of these tracks.

Sometimes, with this record being 13 songs long, it does get a little formulaic and predictable. But still, I do admit I love when I hear standout bars like, "You want to mix? Jump in / Let me assist / Best believe he'll be cracking it before GTA 6". As well as, "He ain't hungry for money / I told him, come eat the rich."The flirty sense of humor that Doja displays across this record is really good, and is just one of many reasons this album comes across is so seriously unserious, or maybe seriously fun is the better way to portray it, which is most definitely the case for the song "Silly Fun", a track that sounds like this lost, goofy synth pop, hypnagogic gem that was then chopped up and remixed into a SoundCloud rap song, and it somehow works perfectly.

The song "Gorgeous" is definitely a moment on this record as well, where Doja is going out on a limb a little bit, as this track is just all about her own relationship with self-image and beauty standards, cosmetic surgery, where a lot of the bars and inflections on the rap where she lays into the song has a really huge College Dropout, old-school Kanye flow. And while the track is one of the snappiest here, it's also one of the and most painfully honest.

Again, really appreciating the risk-taking Doja is doing on this album, though I will say there are some slightly left-of-center moments I'm not totally in love with, but I still think it's cool she tried them, like the French-y and intensely-infatuated "Lipstain", as well as "Take Me Dancing", featuring SZA, which I know there's going to be a lot of listeners that point to this song and say, Hey, it's not quite as catchy or as incredible a track as "Kiss Me More", which, sure, I agree, it's not like as sharp a pop song, but it's still a cool crossover. And though it is not my favorite song here, it does break up the tracklist effectively with the SZA appearance.

The final moments on the album are pretty interesting, I'll say. "Happy" – this is a track that addresses a bit of a romantic betrayal, but sees Doja, in a very grown up way, being able to just move past it and hope that this person is happy, even if they end up in a totally different place and essentially broke her heart. And then there's the closing track, which is one of a few cuts here that features some production from Jack Antonoff.

There were a lot of people going into this record that were very skeptical and scared of Jack's involvement with this album because there's been a lot of talk around the water-cooler about him making some of the pop girlies sound bland. Yeah, it's not my favorite track on the album, actually, maybe my least favorite, not only because the mixing on this one comes across a little muddy and flat despite it sounding so spacy and grandiose, but I'm just not really crazy about the chanted vocal layers that Doja is doing on the chorus of this one. There's something about it that reminds me of Donna Lewis's "I Love You Always Forever".

Again, it's a bit of an awkward vocal and execution, though I do once more admire the ambition that Doja went into this and many other songs on this record with. Because Lord knows, there are actually even some wilder vocal passages earlier on the album that do go well that I don't think Doja would have attempted, if not for whatever the hell was in her on this record, driving her to really get out there with her vocal range. Again, just also be very open and honest and very specific with a lot of the thoughts and perspectives she gives on love and romance through this project, too.

Again, I think Vie has a lot of good quality highlights, a lot of thematic and aesthetic focus, and in some ways, it feels almost like the reverse of many of the projects she has dropped up until this point that I just haven't been that crazy about, where personally, I felt that maybe the singles are pretty good and strong and hard-hitting, but the rest of the record is like a bit of a snooze.

But surprisingly, in my view, it's the songs I thought were really going to pop off or be the most commercial or were the teasers that read to me as the biggest snoozers, while the deep cuts, for the most part, are like... fire. And compelling and emotionally impactful. I mean, sure, nobody wants the big single behind their new album to just do okay on the charts. But I can, at the very least, commend Doja for most of the album outside of that because I do think this is her most interesting album thus far, most consistent, best-produced overall, too, where she really tested herself vocally, lyrically.

I'm just going to leave it there. I do think the tracklist is a little bloated, but this is my favorite Doja Cat project to date. The fact that she was able to hunker down in the way that she was for a record with this much material, with this much focus, has me actually even more excited for where she goes from here, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Doja Cat, forever.