After the incredible success of her albums Hot Pink (2019) and Planet Her (2021), fans were eager to see what pop icon Doja Cat would release with her fourth studio album. Doja Cat, however, took a completely different approach with Scarlet (2023), focusing on a much darker aesthetic and declaring to the world, “No more pop.”
In the lead-up to the album’s release, Doja Cat took to X (formerly Twitter), provoking fans with false rumors and online trolling, which is what brought her to fame in the first place with the song “MOOO!” Doja Cat rejected her fans’ love confessions, claimed that her old music was just a money grab, and explained (on three different occasions) that her new studio album would consist of hardcore rap, experimental jazz and 1990s German rave music. x years.
The album cover for Scarlet features two pearlescent spiders, the beginning of the album’s creepy imagery. In the video for her lead track “Paint the Town Red,” Doja Cat donned devil horns, held pieces of raw meat, and danced with the Grim Reaper. She continued to release an aesthetic outer album, from an Illuminati-themed 27th birthday to a red Swarovski crystal look for Paris Fashion Week.
Doja Cat’s dark aesthetic has come under fire from many who claim she’s sold out her soul has been given over to the devil or has otherwise succumbed to Satanism. Doja Cat, not one to be trolled, backed it up by releasing her second single “Demons,” saying, “What my demons look like / now that you bitches was shaking” and “What my demons look like / now that my Are your pockets full? Even with (or perhaps because of) the controversy surrounding Doja’s behavior on X and potential diabolical associations, each single achieved chart-topping status.
However, despite teasing an album unlike any other
Anything she’s ever released, visual aesthetics aside, Scarlet is a lot like hers. In response to those who called her previous rap verses “corny”, Doja attempted to create an album focused on the genre, as a sort of counterpart to her previous “Planet Her”.
The album begins with her lead singles “Paint the Town Red” and “Demons”, each of which memorably captures Doja’s new aesthetic, which differs from her previous albums. Track 3, “Wet Vaagina,” has an undeniable smoothness that Doja falls short on. some other tracks. She manages to deliver songs like “Gun” that, while good, don’t break the mold she set in “Planet Her.” At 17 tracks, the album searches for something to say but lacks the direction needed to say it.
Doja has excelled at creating internet phenomena, first with her initial rise to fame and now with Scarlet. Except that while it catapulted her to stardom with MOOO!, it was detrimental to that album. After being enveloped in controversy
and by surrounding the album with confusion, Doja Cat created a set of expectations around “Scarlet” that were not met.
The drastic genre shift will be a learning curve for even the most seasoned of artists, and growing pains are definitely evident on the album.
While Doja Cat’s move into a darker aesthetic and genre experimentation with “Scarlet” created a whirlwind of controversy and anticipation, the album ultimately failed to live up to the expectations it created.