Doja Cat - Planet Her


The 'Hot Pink' era of Doja Cat saw a skyrocketing rise to stardom for the American singer-songwriter, so the space aesthetic for the cover art for her third album, 'Planet Her,' is seemingly fitting. Doja has proven herself to be a decent hitmaker, with a couple of tracks from her Hot Pink record like 'Say So' and 'Like That' being the craze on Tik-Tok. However, despite those fun hits, 'Hot Pink' struggled for consistency as an album, with the deep cuts being forgettably mediocre. Hopefully, 'Planet Her' sees an improvement.


In the lead up to the release of 'Planet Her', Doja Cat released the album's first single, 'Kiss Me More', featuring SZA. A groovy tune, Doja is sweetly catchy over a delightful bassline as SZA is at her usual soothing self on her guest verse. However, then came 'Need To Know.' The galactic flavoured production from Dr Luke is serviceable. However, the ad-libs from Doja Cat across this track were annoyingly obnoxious, especially the '(Yeah)' on the bridge. 


'Planet Her' did have an intriguing list of features throughout its tracklist. Of course, SZA mentioned beforehand, and the likes of the Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Young Thug and JID. 'I Don't Do Drugs' featuring Ariana Grande stands as the second-best collaboration on this project. The sweet chimes, bouncy synths, drums and hi-hats make for a flavourful instrumental, complementing the blissful vocals from both Doja and Grande. However, the remaining feature collaborations do produce fruitless results. Young Thug on 'PayDay' is irritably eccentric with his rap verse. 'You Right' featuring the Weeknd is an underwhelming duet, with the production being mainly a vapid synth wave. The Weeknd's verse is also disappointingly mediocre, likewise for Doja on the track. Furthermore, JID is the only highlight on the flute and 808s filled 'Options' as his rap verse is a galaxy ahead of Doja's verse and lacklustre chorus. 


While the features, for the most part, somewhat disappointed, Doja Cat does nicely deliver a couple of moments of critique and introspection. 'Woman' is a decent opener to 'Planet Her', as Doja, while comfortably riding the afrobeat production, criticises how the music industry and media force conflict between female rappers. 


'They wanna pit us against each other when we succeed, and for no reasons, they wanna see us end up like we Regina on Mean Girls. ' 


The Mean Girls reference is a nice touch. 


The penultimate 'Alone' is a pleasant ballad of self-love by Doja Cat, as she finds appreciation for herself after leaving a toxic relationship. The acoustic guitar and the hard-hitting drums are supplemental for Doja at her earnest in her vocal delivery. 


There is also a song in tribute to Nicki Minaj called 'Get Into It (Yuh).' Sweet on paper, but Doja's delivery does take inspiration from Nicki Minaj's 'Roman Holiday.' An obnoxious song back then, and Doja's performance inspired by it is also. 


'Planet Her' is a slight improvement from Doja's previous record 'Hot Pink.' The critiques in 'Woman' and the introspections of self-love in 'Alone' provided intrigue, while Doja found success in collaborations with SZA and Ariana Grande. Unfortunately, the album did suffer from moments of unpleasant vocal performances from Doja herself and fruitless features. 


Best Track(s) : Kiss Me More, Alone, I Don't Do Drugs 


5.5/10

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