One Album, Two Takes: SZA’s latest offering is a stellar follow-up to ‘Ctrl’

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I cannot properly put my stamp of approval on American singer-songwriter SZA’s new album SOS without mentioning her debut album Ctrl, which has sold more than two million copies globally since its release in 2017.  

Ctrl became the soundtrack to some of my wild, drunken and “messiest” university experiences. The album had a unique relatability factor to it, addressing topics of femininity, body image, insecurity and relationships. Its continuous success not only highlighted her exceptional ability to put pen to paper but officially introduced SZA, born Solana Imani Rowe, to the world. 

Before that, she was known for her three EPs: See.SZA.Run, S and Z, released between 2012 and 2014, and she has gone on to write and feature for Rihanna, Maroon Five and Kendrick Lamar. 

My introduction to her dates back to 2015 when American rapper Wale dropped The Album About Nothing, which featured SZA on the ninth track, Need to Know. I’ve been interested in her ever since. 

So, you can understand my excitement when the 33-year-old musician dropped her highly anticipated second studio album SOS in December, after making fans wait five years. 

And boy, oh boy was it worth the wait. Besides it being 23 tracks and about an hour in length, the evolution, experimentalism and lyrical depth are the biggest take homes for me. Sonically, the Love Galore hitmaker demonstrates her versatility, meshing punk, R&B, lo-fi and neo-soul while spitting a few bars in between. 

The second track off SOS, Kill Bill scored SZA her first number one single on the Billboard Global 200 chart last year and the music videos released on 11 January quickly reached more than three million views on YouTube. 

Much like her first album, SOS explores themes such as body image, self-love, rejection and relationships. It reveals a more vulnerable and introspective version of the St Louis-born musician, in a confidently gritty way, opposed to the raw and almost naively honest side she shows on Ctrl, which I fell in love with — and I’m not mad about that. 

With her debut album, I felt as if I was secretly reading her diary — an intruder in her thoughts — in the most pleasantly uncomfortable way. However, SOS feels as if she’s reading her journal out loud while challenging me to be honest with myself about what’s written in mine. 

I must say, part of me is a little bit disappointed that SZA didn’t include her 2020 single Hit Dif ferent, featuring ad-lib specialist Ty Dolla $ign. However, thankfully, she did add Good Days, a teaser track from 2020.    

On this album, she moves away from the need to Ctrl the narrative of her life to the importance of choosing oneself — perhaps that’s why she titled it SOS. “Sos” is also short for Solana, her first name. 

Yes, she still finds herself in bad relationships, judges the way she looks and doubts her life choices, but this time it’s all done in a self-enhancing way and I love to see it. 

— Bongeka Gumede 

Coming after the triple-platinum-selling album Ctrl, SZA’s second studio release SOS has been one of the most anticipated albums of the past few years. 

The Grammy winner’s first album was released in 2017, and although she’d been involved in many high-profile projects, such as the Kendrick Lamar-helmed Black Panther soundtrack (with features from Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5 and others), it hasn’t been enough to appease her fans. 

SZA’s outbursts on Twitter only served to fan the flames — she vented on social media, blaming her record label Top Dawg Entertainment and its chief Terrence “Punch” Henderson for the delays since 2020.

So, by the time the album was finally released on 9 December, I had gone from “take as much time as you need girl” to “I’m over this”. 

However, the 23-track album is absolutely worth the five-year wait. Part of me wishes SZA was more like Adele and had not tried to explain  herself so much between projects — her musicality is too good to be wasting energy going back and forth with Twitter trolls. 

But back to the music. Twenty-three tracks sounds like a lot in 2023 but it goes by very quickly — most of the songs are just under three minutes. The sound of this album is signature SZA. Her lyrics are raw and honest, with the usual hip-hop and R&B influences. Most of her songs are about her former fiancé, whose identity is still a mystery. 

SZA brings a few surprises on SOS. The record-breaking album introduces us to SZA the rapper. Many have made fun of her inability to enunciate when singing, which is a fact — the girl loves to mumble. She can be heard rapping in Smoking on my Ex Pack, a ballsy, boastful and fearless track.

Another surprising song on the album is F2F, the only pop-rock song. I imagine SZA made this after listening to Avril Lavigne and Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus. F2F is written and composed by Melissa “Lizzo’’ Jefferson, yet another reason to love Lizzo. 

My favourite song on the album is Ghost in the Machine featuring Phoebe Bridgers. SZA describes the track as “super alternative”. 

It is a cry for connection: “Can you distract me from all the disaster?/ Can you touch on me and not call me after?/ Can you hate on me and mask it with laughter?/ Can you lead me to the ark, what’s the password?/ I need humanity.”

SOS has only four featured artists: Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott and the late ODB. In an interview, SZA said she wanted other artists on the album but they didn’t submit their verses in time. 

She also confirmed that Doja Cat is working on the remix of T-shirt, which might  be on the deluxe version of SOS. 

On getting permission to feature ODB on Forgiveless, the singer said: “It came from his estate, it came from a piece of documentary footage from Rodney Jerkins. He was sweet enough to let me use it, and he (ODB) was freestyling on the footage and I took the audio,” SZA told Hot 97 in an interview.  

The Love Galore singer is unapologetic on SOS. As much as she explores her missteps in love, she’s also letting it be known that Ctrl was not a fluke; she’s here to stay. 

— Gugulethu Tshabalala 

SOS is available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer.