The song was written and produced by Sumney alongside Matthew Otto, a former member of the Canadian music group Majical Cloudz.

In an interview with Jon Pareles of The New York Times, Sumney called "Doomed" the "thesis" of Aromanticism in explaining why he chose the song as the album's lead single.

"[5] The track is musically minimalist, prominently featuring Sumney's "nearly-a cappella" falsetto vocals which are backed by sustained synthesizer chords.

[3][6][2] Brian Josephs of Spin wrote, "Sumney is luminous here within the percussion-less drones' warmth—his falsetto angelic, his sentiments human.

It was awarded "Best New Track" distinction by Pitchfork upon its release, with Briana Younger praising the "rawness" of Sumney's vocals as "arresting" and saying "the best qualities of his music are put into overdrive.

A video of the performance was released on Sumney's YouTube channel on July 10, 2017, the same day his debut album Aromanticism was announced.

"Doomed" appeared in the ninth episode of the third season The Path, titled "The Veil" which aired on Hulu on February 28, 2018.

[23] The song was also featured in the end credits of "The Absence of Field", the third episode of the third season of the HBO science fiction dystopian thriller television series Westworld.