Doja Cat
manifests a dream fantasy of '80s pop on her confidently frothy fifth album, 2025's
Vie
. The follow-up to 2023's hip-hop-heavy
Scarlet
,
is an unabashed pop confection yet one that's as idiosyncratic and conceptual as anything the Los Angeles singer/rapper has done. Working with mega-producer
Jack Antonoff
and longtime collaborator
Y2K
concocts a fetishized synthwave collage of throwback '80s influences, filtering them all through her own elemental sexy, cool, scary, fun pop diva persona, one that feels like a 2020s sci-fi amalgam of
Grace Jones
, the animated dominatrix-spy Aeon Flux, and
Andy Warhol
's
Marilyn Monroe
painting come to life. It's an album where a sound clip of
Jones
' character Zula from 1984's Conan the Destroyer proclaiming that to get a man, she'd simply "Grab him and take him!" doesn't just add fun pop-culture flair to the intro of "All Mine" but feels central to the album's whole production conception. It's a heightened, self-aware vibe and one
Doja
plays with throughout, framing her warm vocal coo in a wall of raunchy sax lines on the opening "Cards," invoking the Knight Rider theme on the rap party jam "AAAHH MEN!," and conjuring the sultry falsetto and black-light atmosphere of
Prince
on cuts like "Stranger" and "Couples Therapy." Headlining the album is the lead single "Jealous Type," an icy-hot club anthem built around a synthy, whip-crack electro-R&B groove. It's a savvy throwback banger, thrillingly evoking
Janet Jackson
at her most physical. Yet, as with all of
, it underscores
's power as the diva who's in control here. ~ Matt Collar