The Singles Jukebox

It’s the woman who did that nice song you heard on Radio 2!

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[4.83]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The Doja Cat discourse is already exhausting enough, why does this song also have to be produced by Dr. Luke? I’ve been searching my conscience for how I should feel about “Like That,” and at the moment, all I can offer is that I really want to dislike this song — but per Doja’s outro, “I like it.” If Doja keeps releasing bops like this, she might earn her forgiveness yet. 
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Lukasz “Tyson Trax” “Made in China” “Manhun Glow” Gottwald, having already sampled his way into a comeback hit with “Say So,” is trying for a repeat: a pseudonym, a familiar over-plush Isley Brothers sample (hey, for no reason at all, remember this?) and overfull promo budget, an endless capacity for the world to overlook or forget about shitheads. In times like these, one is incredibly thankful for Doja Cat; it seems sadly inevitable that one of these hits is going to capture the zeitgeist as well as the charts, but it’ll take a vocalist who’s less of an obnoxious edgelord.
[4]

Alfred Soto: Your guess is as good as mine about Dr. Luke’s contributions: two dozen trap beats bounce-bounce-bounce as adeptly. Doja Cat doesn’t need him. But damn if she doesn’t luxuriate in the spaces between the beats. Now someone get in her manager’s ear right quick.
[6]

Nortey Dowuona: Bouncing ball bass is thrown against the wall as Doja sits on Dr. Luke’s lap, they watch WSHH and Dr. Luke texts Gavin McInnes photos of her tail. Meanwhile, a Gucci Mane clone theory video pops up on mix in the playlist with Young Pharaoh playing a soft synth line with a low bassline below it on a synthesizer called White Chocolate.
[5]

Leah Isobel: This is a little livelier than “Say So,” but not by much.
[5]

Oliver Maier: The trouble with trying to mould Doja into a main pop girl is figuring out which of her edges to sand off. I’m talking less about the folder’s worth of receipts levelled at her recently than the cheeky subversive spirit that animated her music pre-ascendancy, a characteristic that has felt increasingly stilted in the transition to superstardom and will doubtless be unbearable by her next album cycle. Jettisoning the playfulness altogether would defeat the point of Doja Cat, however, so the strategy so far has generally been unironic sensuality in sung sections with the kookiness reserved for rapped verses. It doesn’t work! As on “Say So” the split makes both personas feel insincere, like having a bickering angel and devil Doja on either shoulder whose only shared values are being horny and still working with Dr. Fucking Luke. Gucci Mane feels like a chaperone here but he at least knows how to rap. I said of “Juicy” that Doja’s charisma was enough to overcome her lack of obvious talent for either method of vocal delivery. Diminishing returns set in fast.
[3]