Unlike past years, there hasn’t been one strong single contender for “Song of the Summer”—maybe because Doja Cat didn’t get around to releasing a new song until just now. The powerhouse behind the ubiquitous “Say So” recently announced her fifth studio album Vie, which will debut September 26. On Friday, Doja dropped the first single from that project, “Jealous Type,” a rap-pop track that fits perfectly into her oeuvre while also showcasing new shades of her voice.
Doja previously teased that the album is something of a ’90s kid’s dream of the ’80s, as evidenced by the synthy sounds on “Jealous Type.” The video also draws heavy inspiration from the era, with its leopard print fashion and neon lightscape. The singer herself plays a femme fatale in the style of Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct as she warns her lover, “Baby, I can’t hurt you, sure, but I’m the jealous type.”
Those who have been following Doja Cat’s career may be surprised to see that she’s veering back in a familiar sonic direction, after publicly expressing her disinterest in pop music and even dismissing her own past works as “cash grabs.” In a recent interview with V Magazine, she defended pop, saying there are “bystanders” to pop who “don’t respect it or what it is, which is just music. There are some people who don’t see it as music. They see it as if this is some kind of football for girls and gays.” Not only is she embracing the genre, she’s also embracing the work that she’d previously put down: “Where I am creatively right now is based in where I was,” she explained of Vie. “I want to kind of swim back upstream, so to speak, and go back where I was, and just re-trim and evolve everything.”
