Album Review: Scarlet by Doja Cat

Scarlet

Doja Cat

Label: Kemosabe Records/RCA Records

GRADE: B

Doja Cat’s fourth studio album sees her take a more heavily rap-based form, straying away from the playful aesthetic that helped her rise to fame and back into her bag of tricks as a rapper. This is also her first album with no features, an important milestone in many rappers’ careers..

Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” opens the album with glowing production and a happy tone, before transitioning to the distorted trap banger, “Demons.” Her high-pitched vocals add a unique dimension to some of the darker beats on this album, which makes her music so much more satisfying to listen to. She uses great wordplay on tracks like “Wet Vagina,” where she claims to have “drip,” a clever pun that hopefully needs no further explanation. She then transitions into a more low-key middle section, full of bubbly, gentle vocals that can remind listeners of her wildly successful album, Planet Her, before picking up energy towards the end again. Most importantly, Doja Cat proved that her versatility as a rapper and singer works well enough to sustain a 17-track featureless album that keeps listeners engaged from start to finish.

—Zafir Nagji