Doja Cat’s Planet Her: a pleasantly surprising galactic ride

By Sergio Niblett-Morales 15 July 2021

Image Courtesy of RCA Records

I went into this album with middling expectations. I have never been a fan of rap music, but I was impressed by Kiss Me More (featuring SZA), a fresh Pop song that was destined for massive radio play. Need To Know is also catchy and I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Album Analysis

Planet Her is an embodiment of Doja’s versatility as an artist. She dips into a variety of music genres, all of which are refreshing to hear.

The opening track Woman, a sleek Afrobeat song, quickly grew on me. The hook is short and sweet: Doja repeats ‘Let me be your woman’ numerous times during the chorus, which is difficult to get out of your head.

The album then moves to Naked, another upbeat song with an infectious refrain (‘Can we take this off and get naked?), repeated over its slinky production. As per the majority of the songs on this album, Doja floats between beautiful, layered harmonies and powerful rap verses.

Doja’s rap verse on Naked contains several standout lines. ‘Let me cordially invite you to the party in my pants’ and ‘Who’s your designer?/ Is that birthday suit one of a kind, uh’, both risqué and hilarious to listen to, centre the expression of female sexuality that the song embodies.

Been Like This, an R&B track punctuated by a subtle string arrangement in the background, is one of the strongest songs on the album. It epitomes who Doja is as an artist, as she slides between her rapping verse and higher register vocals on the bridge and the outro. Doja’s voice breaks at the end of the bridge as the strings rise in the background, perfectly capturing the emotional tone of the song.

Love To Dream, although faster production-wise, is similar to Been Like This. Vocally, this song is strong. The chorus almost entirely remains in Doja’s upper register, particularly in the line ‘We just love to dream’.

The weakest song on the album, Get Into It (Yuh), is very generic. The harmonies on the chorus and a few lyrical flourishes (such as a shoutout to Nicki Minaj and a reference to Ariana Grande) are welcome additions to the track, but production-wise the song is forgettable and has been done many times before.

Collaborations

A plethora of collaborations forms some of the album’s strongest tracks.

My personal favourites, I Don’t Do Drugs (featuring Ariana Grande) and Payday (featuring Young Thug) are both Pop-trap infused songs.

Doja and Ariana almost switch roles in I Don’t Do Drugs, with Ariana taking the ‘rap’ verse of the song. They harmonise beautifully throughout, proving that Doja can hold her own as both a singer and a rapper.

Payday is another breezy hyper-pop song in which Doja reflects on how far she has come in her career. Whilst the song is one of my personal favourites, Young Thug doesn’t add much. The track would have been stronger with only Doja on it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

You Right takes an R&B route with its production - well accustomed for The Weeknd who feel at home on the track. In this lyrically contemplative song, Doja wants someone else despite being in a relationship, repeating ‘I got a man but I want you’ in the pre-chorus.

Options is my least favourite collaboration on the standard edition of the album, but JID’s cadence is top-notch.

Deluxe Songs

Tonight (featuring Eve), a guitar-laden track, sounds nothing like the other songs on the album. It is reminiscent of songs from the early 2000s and stands out against the album’s more generic tracks.

On the other hand, Up And Down and Why Why (featuring Gunna) fall into the same generic category as Get Into It (Yuh).

Verdict

Overall, while Planet Her doesn’t revolutionise the wheel, it is still a pleasantly surprising ride. Doja’s acrobatic versatility and cadence are enough to keep the album interesting and fresh.