FEATURE:
Revisiting…
Doja Cat – Planet Her
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THIS feature is me…
looking back at albums from the past five years that should be played more. The incredible Doja Cat’s (Amala Dlamini) third studio album, Planet Her, was released in June last year. It is a recent album, though I feel the songs from it should be played more. One of the finest Hip-Hop artists of her generation, she is a stunning talent that I really love. I wanted to get to a couple of reviews for the album. It got positivity when it was released, but there were a few more mixed reviews that I think are unfair. To me, it is one of the best albums from last year. So many of her best songs – Kiss Me More and Woman – are on Planet Her. If you have not heard the album before, then go and check it out. It is one that everyone needs to study – whether they like Hip-Hop and Pop or not. Before coming to reviews, there is an interview from COMPLEX where Doja Cat was asked about Planet Her and the positive reaction to it (she was interviewed in September):
“You recently mentioned in your chat with Missy Elliott that you wanted Planet Her to have a “collage of sounds.” A lot of albums come together when all the tracks follow a specific sound, but what criteria did it take for a song to be worthy of being on Planet Her?
I feel like I’m kind of not destined—or, maybe a little cursed. I tend to do this on every album, where I do something different with every song. And I really do appreciate consistency as an artist. Those are the albums that I play the most in my own personal life. I’m able to kind of just listen to things that sound very consistent. I can’t really play albums that switch up too much, which is kind of strange. You’d think that I’d be making albums that way if that’s my favorite thing. But I think I just need to really be happy about what I’m making, and sometimes that means I have to change my entire direction in the studio when I’m making each song individually. Because I get very bored very quickly, I think. In the future, I’m going to try more to kind of shoot for more conceptual things that feel consistent, but I don’t know. As of now, and in the past, I’ve just never really felt like I wanted to follow anything.
You also mentioned something about the album being a little weirder. What makes a song too weird? And I’ve heard you use that word before, too. Are you glad that the word “weird” can be used in such a positive context?
I think when I say “weird,” it’s more just things that stick out like a sore thumb. So with Hot Pink, that wasn’t the issue for me. That wasn’t something I wanted to avoid. I liked it being all over the place. And I felt like it gave it a vibrant touch to the album to have those stick-out-like-sore-thumb moments. But for this album, I worked with one producer, Y2K, who has a very specific style. He’s good at classic pop, but he does add hip-hop elements into them more often than not, and I wanted to stay true to that. I worked with other producers on this project, but I wanted it to feel more sparkly and pretty and high-energy, and less like a circus. I don’t know how to really describe it. But I mean, when you listen, it’s just very clean. I wanted everything to be very clean. I had songs that maybe sounded too Prince or a little too hip-hop or something. The thing is, “Ain’t Shit” is the one stick-out record on the album. I feel like I was OK with that, because that song meant so much to my fans and meant so much to me. So that one gets a pass. But yeah, that’s kind of how I feel about the weird, weird tracks.
This year, you dabbled in acting with Dave. Are there any other mediums that you’ve yet to explore that are on your radar?
My big thing that I really want to do in the future is acting, and I don’t know how to get in there. You know, people have offered some things in the past. And it’s always been that I need four months at a time to do those things. But I don’t, because I’ll have an album coming out. During Hot Pink, that whole rollout sort of got in the way of other things. I mean, in the future, I’m definitely trying to see if I can send out my schedule for stuff like that, because I really do love improv and I’m really into the idea of getting into acting. People told me I should act, too, so I might as well try.
What do you think the positive reception of Planet Her—whether it be the awards or the crowd feedback last weekend—has taught you about what you’ve been able to do with the project?
It taught me a lot of things as far as strength. More specifically, vocal strength. Like, I’ve pushed myself for this project. And to be on stage during the songs, I felt a lot more comfortable. I definitely was out of breath at certain points. And it hurts when I watch those moments, but I’ve grown a lot, just in the physical realm as far as the vocals and dancing. These songs are made for that. The songs are made for dance. The songs are made for further expression in that way, so I’m excited to do that in the future”.
An album that reached number two in the U.S. and three in the U.K., Planet Her was a big commercial success. It also received mostly positive reviews. That said, I would love to hear the album played more on the radio. There were a few mixed reviews that missed the point or did not listen to Planet Her that hard. A supreme artist with whose production and songwriting throughout the album is amazing, everyone needs to take a moment out and listen to Planet Her. This is what NME said in their review of Doja Cat’s third studio album:
“Perhaps more than any other pop star, Doja Cat seems to reflect our current, rather fractious era of social media. It’s not just the way she’s conquered TikTok – her glistening disco bop ‘Say So’ topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019 after inspiring a viral dance trend – but also her steady stream of online controversies.
These include but aren’t limited to: dismissing coronavirus as “a flu” in early 2020, hanging out in chat rooms that allegedly propagated alt-right sentiments before she was famous and initially trying to defend her past use of a homophobic slur before backtracking with an apology. At this stage, a certain amount of messiness is almost baked into her persona, but she’s alway managed to bat away any real threat of being ‘cancelled’.
Then there’s the perpetual elephant in the room: the 25-year-old’s association with Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald. This previously prolific songwriter-producer became a music industry pariah in 2014 after being accused of emotional abuse and sexual assault by Kesha (he has always denied the allegations and in 2020 won a defamation case against the star). He produced ‘Say So’ under the pseudonym Tyson Trax, and the song’s enormous chart success effectively sealed his comeback last year. So it’s not too surprising that he contributes to three tracks here – including the hit single ‘Kiss Me More’, a funky, sun-kissed collaboration with SZA, and ‘You Right’, a dreamy duet with The Weeknd. Tellingly, he’s now credited as Dr. Luke once more.
Whether you want to listen to Doja Cat bops produced by Dr. Luke is a matter of personal conscience. Less debatable are her obvious skills as a performer. Throughout this intoxicating third album, the artist born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini pivots effortlessly between deceptively sweet singing – deceptive because her lyrics are generally anything but – and fierce, filter-free rapping. “Eat it like I need an apron on / Eat it ’til I need to change my thong,” she purrs on the grinding sex jam ‘Need to Know’. Sex and regret are recurring themes here, sometimes coalescing on the same song. She’s said on Twitter the wistful R&B ballad ‘Love to Dream’ deals with “fantasising and reminiscing about an ex”, a relatable jumble of emotions that the song conveys perfectly.
It’s also difficult to argue with her knack for naggingly catchy, TikTok-ready melodies. If ‘Planet Her’ sounds precision-tooled for chilled summer listening, its choruses tend to linger like a Sangria buzz. Musically, it’s a breezy affair – 14 tracks fly by in under 45 minutes – that gives Doja ample opportunity to show off her range. Whether she’s celebrating her feminine power over an afrobeats rhythm on ‘Woman’ – “I could be the CEO, just like a Robyn Fenty,” she brags – or duetting with Ariana Grande on the featherlight R&B glide ‘I Don’t Do Drugs’, she’s an agile and consistently compelling presence. On the spacey breakup song ‘Alone’, she sings and raps so slickly that she almost comes off like a one-woman, Gen-Z TLC.
‘Planet Her’ is also an album that brims with the confidence of an artist embracing her imperial phase. You don’t hire David LaChapelle to create your cover art – as Doja does here with stunning, space-themed results – unless you’re really feeling yourself. On the lascivious sex jam ‘Get Into It (Yuh)’, she’s brazen enough to namecheck Ed Sheeran and thank Nicki Minaj, who co-signed Doja by jumping on a ‘Say So’ remix last year
Unlike Minaj, Doja’s lyrics don’t always dazzle with wit and wordplay, but they definitely possess a plain-speaking power. “Left on read and can’t give head / Buddy, you ain’t shit, need a laxative,” she tells an inadequate male on ‘Ain’t Shit’. Sometimes, it’s not so much what she says, but the way that she says is. When she adopts a childlike voice for one of the track’s later putdowns – “You should have paid my rent / Go get a fuckin’ job” – it really heightens the sting.
Though she works with a dozen or so producers including Jay-Z associate Al Shux and Drake collaborator Rogét Chahayed, ‘Planet Her’ is almost entirely mid-tempo and defined by a certain lightness of touch. This means that ‘Kiss Me More’ is probably the only track that matches ‘Say So’ for pure, unassailable pop appeal, but also that the downbeat, dirge-like ‘Been Like This’ is the record’s only dull moment. It all adds up to a job well done with more than enough bops to drown out her next social media controversy”.
Prior to wrapping up, there is another review that is worth bringing in. AllMusic were among the many who had some very positive things to say about a remarkable album:
“Pop polymath Doja Cat crossed completely over to the mainstream after her 2019 release Hot Pink. Third album Planet Her puts the emphasis on her versatility and anything-goes stylistic blend, applying even slicker production values to her already radio-friendly sound. The record swings wildly, tackling different sounds almost song to song. Album opener "Woman" is a sultry and bass-heavy track that pulses with a psuedo-Caribbean groove before throwing in the curveball of a Kendrick Lamar-esque rap flow halfway in. The gears switch quickly to hooky rap-singing on the melodic Young Thug-assisted earworm "Payday," slick cosmic R&B on "You Right," featuring a cameo verse from the Weeknd, vaporous indie-adjacent electronic sounds on "Been Like This," and sugary balladry meeting booming bass thumps on the lovestruck yearning of "I Don't Do Drugs" featuring Ariana Grande. All of Doja Cat's various creative wanderings are held together seamlessly by incredibly clean and detail-rich production. Each of her unexpected left turns and potentially clashing marriages of styles are guided into easy landings with expertly placed rhythmic dropouts, ear-catching synth flourishes, and inventive instrumental moves that fill any space that could be awkward or uneven in less-skilled hands. Planet Her's dazzling construction is matched by Doja Cat's controlled performances and a personality that can deliver hypersexualized brags and expressions of tenderness and fragility with the same power. Some of the album's best moments hold space for both, like the lewd yet sweet drift of "Love to Dream," and the pitch-perfect summer anthem "Kiss Me More," which closes out its celebration of lust and the giddy excitement of brand-new love with a verse from SZA. Doja Cat tries something new with almost every orbit on Planet Her. When the production magic keeps up with her boundless spirit, the songs reach a unique hotspot of fun and infectiousness that makes all of Doja Cat's disparate impulses gel into an exhilarating whole”.
I love Planet Her and everything Doja Cat does. A terrific album from last year, it still sounds great when I play it now. I look forward to hearing and seeing what is next for Doja Cat. Her latest album clearly highlights the fact that she is…
ONE of the world’s best artists.