Monday, April 26th, 2021

Doja Cat ft. SZA – Kiss Me More

Doja Cat said: “I wanted to make a song about kissing. I just thought it would be cute. That doesn’t happen too often, but just a song that’s solely about kissing.”


[Video]
[6.00]

Dede Akolo: What is it with R&B-inspired pop music lately being so serviceable? At least Alex Landi is hot. 
[6]

Jeffrey Brister: “Aerodynamic” is the only word coming to mind here. No rough edges, no hooks, no jagged bits that might catch on my brain. Just gliding over, leaving no impression, and forgotten by the time it’s gone (I’d gotten this one confused with “Say So” every time I tried to recall it from memory).
[5]

Camille Nibungco: Another sickly saccharine pop banger of a love song churned out by the relentless internet edge-lady Doja Cat. The core melody is reminiscent of Doja’s initial Moo-era, although more matured and with a bigger production budget. Accompanied by the backup vocals and signature timbre of the one and only Solana Rowe — I’m partial to anything SZA-associated — it’s a song I’ll have on repeat for a while.
[8]

Alfred Soto: Conversational pathos is SZA’s strength; Doja Cat’s is conversation. The sexxytalk, while fine and PG-13-rated, pales beside the easeful cadences and the no-fuss rhythm. I smell summer. 
[7]

Natasha Genet Avery: SZA is clearly out of her element in this playful, disco-pop interpolation of “Physical” — how very on-brand of her to hop on a track about French kissing your crush with a line like “fuckin’ with you feel like jail.” Jail! The tonal mismatch of “Kiss Me More” (and, maybe, Doja and SZA’s oeuvres more broadly) is a great case study of the difference between lust and yearning. 
[5]

Juana Giaimo: It seems that in 2021 we need to say that a guitar riff is not a song. The guitar melody is nice in the beginning but finishes being quite tiring when it’s repeated throughout three and a half minutes. None of the two voices can compite with it — when it’s paired with Doja Cat’s loud rap verse it has a strange effect, as if I had forgotten to turn off one of the two songs.
[5]

Andrew Karpan: Incredibly gracious, in retrospect, of Doja’s crew to let Dua Lipa finish up most of her album cycle before handily riding in circles around anything on Future Nostalgia, whose mawkish gasping around the same Chic-esque bass lines now feels largely forgettable next to the work of such consummate professionals. This is how it’s done. 
[9]

Thomas Inskeep: I understand that sounding at times like Nicki Minaj’s bratty younger sister is a plus for plenty of Doja Cat’s fans; that, however, works an opposite kind of anti-magic on me. Combine that delivery with generic-sounding (and Dr. Luke-involved) pop and this is a non-starter, which only gets any kind of spark when SZA pipes up. 
[3]

Samson Savill de Jong: I’m very strongly tempted to give this a [0] purely for Dr. Luke’s involvement — I can only assume he still has a career because he’s sufficiently behind the scenes that you wouldn’t know he was there unless you looked. But although Luke’s involvement does dampen it somewhat, I can’t pretend that I really hate it, even if I won’t listen to it again. This is the kind of Doja Cat I want: someone who’s having a bit of fun and not taking herself too seriously — to the point that SZA, an objectively better singer and artist than Doja, doesn’t work as well on the song as her. SZA is too soulful, too involved; this means something to her, whereas I’m not sure Doja really gives two shits. She’s just having a good time with a cheeky wink and a shrug if she needs to get someone else to be her “kissing” partner, which is the exact kind of energy that really sells this to me. Like I said, the fun is somewhat undercut knowing who one of the people behind this was, but when I forget that, I enjoy it, and might’ve enjoyed it more if he wasn’t there.
[6]

Reader average: [3.88] (9 votes)

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2 Responses to “Doja Cat ft. SZA – Kiss Me More”

  1. The tonal whiplash of a Physical interpolation followed by a Gwen Stefani-like “ALL ON MY TONGUE I WANT IT” is initially a distracting turn-off, but ya get used to it I suppose.

  2. Have not been able to blurb in a bit, but Alex Landi….and also, it has come to my attention that the guitar riff…is actually from Ouran High School Host Club??

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc1FvrL4EqA