Doja Cat ‘Vie’ Review: An Exercise in Pop Pastiche

The very first sound you hear on Doja Cat’s Vie is a saxophone, immediately establishing the milieu of a set that’s steeped in ’80s pop signifiers. The standout “Aaahh Men!” is built around the iconic, oft-sampled theme song from Knight Rider, while “All Mine” quotes Grace Jones—“Grab him! And take him!”—from the 1985 James Bond film A View to Kill.

Doja’s music is best when she strikes a balance between hip-hop and pop, between hard and soft. But Vie sets up camp (pun intended) in the latter, and its conception of the ’80s is largely defined by thin beats, squelchy synths, and distant sax noodling. The sole exceptions are “Acts of Service” and “Make It Up,” trap ballads that come in the album’s final stretch.

Doja flaunts her freshly honed vocal chops on songs like “Jealous Type” and “Stranger,” but her skills as a rapper—which she leaned into on 2023’s Scarlet, her best album to date—shine brightest here. They say nostalgia files away the rough edges of the good ol’ days, and “Aaahh Men!” is the only track on Vie that hits very hard, with Doja spitting lines like “It’s got me achin’, it’s got me thinkin’/Am I gay or am I just angry?” and “Ain’t nobody finna force me to twerk/When you finish with your goon sesh/Join me in church.”

Despite the media’s fondness for comparing female artists, especially rappers, Doja mostly draws comparisons to her male counterparts on Vie. The way she emphasizes the last syllable of words on “Gorgeous” is reminiscent of early Kanye, her inflection on “Stranger” recalls that of Eminem, and her blissed-out falsetto on “All Mine” is indebted to Prince, whose influence can be felt all over the album.

Outside of Doja’s rap verses, Vie feels less like a contemporary album in conversation with the past—like, say, Gwen Stefani’s Love. Angel. Music. Baby.—and more like a straightforward exercise in pastiche. The rapper-singer’s willingness to step outside of her comfort zone means we get to luxuriate in the nostalgia of tracks like “Come Back,” which evokes those dreamy Nestle white chocolate commercials from the ’80s. But the album as a whole is probably too lightweight (and repetitive) to make a lasting impression.