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Doga (album)

Doga is the eighth studio album by Argentine musician Juana Molina. It was released on 5 November 2025 by Sonamos, an independent record label she co-founded in 2021. Doga marks Molina's first release of new original compositions in eight years, and her first collaboration with a producer since her troubled debut album Rara (1996). The origin of these compositions dates back to 2019, when Molina prepared a series of concerts called Improviset alongside keyboardist and frequent collaborator Odín Schwartz, during which they recorded at least sixty hours of improvisation using analog synthesizers and sequencers.

Composition
Critics have noted that Doga continues but evolves Molina's distinctive musical style, which resists easy categorization into any particular genre or scene. In his review of Doga, Pitchforks Walden Green noted that Molina "has spent nearly three decades abstracting South American folk music into rhizomatic root networks that entwine the digital with the acoustic." Although she has maintained her distinctive style, over the following decades the folk-related elements of her music, which were more acoustic and immediate, have evolved towards more electronic and abstract sounds, culminating in her 2017 album Halo. Doga represents a deepening of this evolution in her sound, and has been described as "slipperier and more revealing than any of its predecessors", and "her most warped yet immediate material to date, retaining the element of curious melody that defined her early recordings while enveloping them in hypnotic synth grooves." Sergio Sánchez of Página/12 described the album as "eleven experimental, unpredictable, and playful pieces." Writing for Rockdelux, Jesús Rodríguez Lenin felt that the artist closest to Molina musically is Lucrecia Dalt, with whom he collaborated on a song from her latest album, but that with Doga, "she has shaped a very different work, made up of experimental and avant-garde sounds that she nevertheless manages to transform into something accessible and enveloping." Much of the sound on the album focuses on the sound of old analog synthesizers, which give the record its distinctive sonic character. According to Green, on Doga, Molina's "fascinations have shifted from the paranormal to the paranatural. She cherry-picks synthetic textures that mimic the most terrifying sounds you can hear in your own backyard—a fisher cat's cry, a coyote's howl, the humming of a wasp's nest under the eaves. == Songs ==
Songs
The album opens with "Uno es árbol", which features the cryptic lyrics "One is tree/One is not sleeping tree/In untree/One is asleep/The untree/In untree/One is not sleeping tree." Rodríguez Lenin characterized the beginning of "La paradoja" as "almost as machinal as a Suicide song, although with a kinder voice." Molina's finished it after a trip to Canada, and stated that it is one of her favorite songs on the record. Doga's lead single, "Siestas ahí", was named its most accessible song. It features a "cutesy, almost lullaby-like charm", with lyrics about intimacy and "moving closer to another's softness and dissolving in their presence", supported by swaying guitars and subdued synths that feel "both sweet and quietly disorienting". According to Rivas, the analog sequencers of "Indignan a un zorzal" produce a rhythm that "seems autonomous, beyond human control"; like they were "machines (...) developing their own behavior." Molina stated that the lyrics of "Va rara" were conceived as "a necessary complement to be able to sing", but that she did not elaborate them much when composing the song. Furthermore, she said: "For a while now I've been (...) threatening (...) that one day I'm going to compose songs without lyrics. (...) I have a lot to say musically (...). That's why it's essential for me that the words don't interfere with the music." The title of "Intringulado", the album's second-to-last song, is "an invented word to describe a mess all tangled up." Its lyrics center around material attachment and the value of objects that carry memories; specifically, it evokes the argument of a trio of sisters about a teapoot. This impresion is reinforced by the use of violins, the track's lead instruments. Green described the songs "Rina soi" and "Miro todo" as "droning epics", characterizing the former as a "disquieting MIDI lullaby" and saying of the latter that it "should lay to rest once and for all the question: what if Rebekah Del Rio from Mulholland Drive fronted Led Zeppelin?". "Rina soni" features synthesizers sound that have compared to Autechre's early work; while the guitars of "Miro todo" transform at the one-and-a-half-minute mark of the song to a sound similar of out-of-tune violins, something Molina deliberately sought out. ==Critical reception==
Critical reception
Doga was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, both in her home country and internationally. Le Devoir gave the album a full-score rating, with critic Amélie Revert noting that its songs form a "whole of remarkable fluidity, anchored in a space of freedom that could be associated with a Kafkaesque universe." Tape Ops Geoff Stanfield called Doga "another masterwork" of Molina's career, noting: "It has all of the signature destabilizing elements that immediately transport the listener into another dimension, but it is also the most fully realized of all of her work." Billboard Argentina included Doga in its list of "The 50 Albums That Defined 2025", describing it as a "work that progresses intuitively, that sticks with you more for its rhythm than its melody, and that leaves you with the impression that you were part of something more than just listening to a piece of music." Rolling Stone listed Doga at number 7 in its list of "The Best Latin Albums of 2025", with the album's entry describing Molina as "one of Latin America's most intriguing artists, building mysterious soundscapes that feel like finding your way through some kind of enchanted forest while in a deep trance", and the record as a "performance spectacle you want to get lost in again and again". Counting only Argentine artists, Doga is the third best Argentine album of 2025 on Rolling Stones list. Joan Escutia of Vogue México y Latinoamérica ranked it at number 3 on his list of "The 30 Best Latin Music Albums of 2025", writing: "The figure of Juana Molina in the musical universe of Latin America is omnipresent. With more than thirty years creating the most mind-blowing experiments in Argentine music, her influence is almost palpable, and it's in Doga where she reaffirms this abundantly." Jenesasispop ranked Doga at number 36 on its list of the "Best International Albums of 2025". Dutch magazine Oor ranked Doga as the 263th best album of 2025. The lead single "Siestas ahí" ranked at number 75 on Pitchforks list of "The 100 Best Songs of 2025", with critic Stefanie Fernández praising its "primordial backdrop of synthesizer and acoustic loops", while "Caravanas" appeared at number 37 on Rolling Stones list of "The 50 Best Latin and Spanish-Language Songs of 2025". ==Track listing==
Personnel
Credits adapted from Molina's official website and Dogas Bandcamp release. • Juana Molina — composition, lyrics, performance, production, mixing, recording (home sessions in General Pacheco), synthesizers (1, 5, 8, 10), keyboards (1), base (10) • Emilio Haro — production, mixing, recording assistant (2024–2025 sessions), guitar (2), programming (2, 5, 7–8) • Mario Agustín de Jesús González — production (8), mixing, production assistant, recording assistant (2021–2025 sessions), synthesizers (8) • Odín Schwartz — recording assistant (2020 sessions), keyboards (1), bass (6), synthesizers (6), base (10) • Diego López de Arcaute — synthesizers (1, 10), percussion (1, 9), drums (2–3, 6, 8), sampling (9) • Leslie Feist — executive production (4, 7) • Andrew Barr — executive production (4, 7), percussion (4) • Daniel Osorio — mastering at El Ángel Estudio in Buenos Aires • Matías Sznaider — recording at Sonorámica in TraslasierraHoward Bilerman — recording at Hotel2Tango in Montreal (4, 7) • Alejandro Ros — artwork design • Sarah Page — harp (4, 7) • Todd Dahlhoff — electric bass (4), • Robbie Kuster — nail organ vibrations (4), hand saw (7) • Julio Dominguez — violin (9) • Verena Algranti — photography • Sebastián Ruíz — recording assistant (2023 sessions at Sonorámica) • Mati Medús — recording assistant (2023 sessions at Sonorámica) • Shae Brossard — recording assistant (2023 sessions at Hotel2Tango) ==References==
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