Thoughts on SZA’s Biggest Project to Date: SOS

WHAT YOU JUST HEARD WAS THE FIRST FEW SECONDS OF SOS, THE TITLE TRACK

OFF OF AMERICAN SINGER SZA’S LATEST ALBUM. IT’S ALSO THE FIRST TRACK OFF THE ALBUM, PULLING US INTO THE EXPANSIVE AND OFTEN VINDICTIVE WORLD OF SOS.

THIS IS SZA’S FIRST ALBUM SINCE 2017, WHEN SHE RELEASED HER DEBUT

STUDIO ALBUM CTRL. CTRL WAS RELEASED WITH GREAT CRITICAL ACCLAIM

AND QUICKLY GENERATED A CULT-LIKE FOLLOWING. LISTENERS IMMEDIATELY

TOOK TO SZA’S VOICE, WITH ITS ABILITY TO SOAR ABOVE MORE BASIC POP MELODIES AND STRADDLE DIFFERENT GENRES. HERE’S KARRAH TOATLEY, A MEDILL FIRST-YEAR.

[Paul O’Connor] How like, how big of a fan do you think you are?

[Karrah Toatley] I have listened to both albums. I feel like I’m a casual fan.

[PO] Yeah. When did you start getting into her?

[KT] I got into her when Love Galore dropped, because that was a pretty popular song, and my sister showed it to me.

[PO] Was there anything unique about the album?

[KT] I just liked her tone of voice and the way that she sang. It just sounds so pretty and so airy and it just like in Love Galore, her little runs are just so good to listen to with, like, headphones. It just sounds so nice.

FANS OF CTRL ALSO PRAISED SZA FOR HER OFTEN DEVASTATING HONESTY.

HERE’S SYDNEY JOHNSON, A FIRST YEAR IN THE SCHOOL OF COMMS.

[Sydney Johnson] CTRL—Incantations, Unreleased Release. It is confessions without even thinking for a second on whether or not you should say them. It’s just, I don’t know. It’s very raw. She talks a lot about a lot of her insecurities.

OTHER FANS WERE DRAWN TO HER SOMEWHAT MYSTERIOUS PERSONA. HERE’S BRANDEN CHEN, A WEINBERG FIRST-YEAR.

[Branden Chen] There were a lot of memes about how she’s kind of like incoherent and you can’t really understand what she’s saying in her songs, which I thought was kind of funny cause that I would just like, go through all of her songs and like, try to figure out what she was saying in them.

HERE’S SZA FROM 2017 IN AN INTERVIEW WITH POWER 106 LOS ANGELES BEFORE THE RELEASE OF CTRL:

[SZA] I think CTRL control is more of a concept than a title. I wanted to control the way people saw me, thought of me, wanted to control the way life is going. Once you lose enough, you allow yourself the space to relinquish control.

FEELINGS OF POWERLESSNESS INFLUENCED HER FIRST ALBUM. BUT IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS. WHAT’S SHE THINKING ABOUT NOW? SHE DIDN’T MINCE WORDS WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE INSPIRATION FOR HER ALBUM. HERE’S AN INTERVIEW WITH POSTED ON THE CORNER SHORTLY BEFORE SOS DROPPED:

[CLIP ABOUT SZA BEING ANGRY]

THE ANGER COMES THROUGH RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING, IN THE ALBUM’S

TITLE TRACK, “SOS.” THE SONG SAMPLES A GOSPEL TUNE FROM THE 70S, ARRANGED BY THE GABRIEL HARDEMAN DELEGATION, CALLED “UNTIL I

FOUND THE LORD (MY SOUL COULDN’T REST).” IT PROVIDES A TRIUMPHANT

SEGUE INTO A RELATIVELY SHORT AND UNINTERRUPTED DECLARATION OF HER

INTENT TO “TAKE WHAT’S MINE.” SOS SHOWS SOME ATTEMPT TO TAKE SOME

OWNERSHIP OVER THAT HEARTBREAK. BUT TRACKS LIKE SPECIAL, THE 16TH OFF THE ALBUM, LEAN RIGHT IN. ACCORDING TO SYDNEY, THIS IS WHERE WE SEE THE CLEAREST INFLUENCE OF CTRL:

[SJ] I think, like, special is probably the most CTRL-like song on there, because that’s a confession song. ‘These are my thoughts. This is how I actually feel.’

BUT THE ALBUM CERTAINLY DOESN’T LINGER IN THE PAST. SOS IS BY FAR THE MORE EXPERIMENTAL BETWEEN HER TWO MAJOR PROJECTS:

[KT] I think this album showed that she has a lot more range vocally and in genres too.

SNOOZE LEANS MORE INTO CLASSIC R&B.

[Snooze clip]

SHIRT HAS A HIP-HOP AND TRAP SOUND.

[Shirt clip]

AND F2F, PERHAPS ONE OF THE MORE BIZARRE TRACKS OFF THE ALBUM, EXPERIMENTS WITH POP-PUNK.

[F2F clip]

SOS ALSO HAS SOME NOTABLE COLLABORATIONS.

[SOS clip]

FEATURED ON THE CTRL SINGLE “LOVE GALORE,” TRAVIS SCOTT RETURNS ON “OPEN ARMS.”

[Open Arms clip]

THIS TRACK ALSO BRINGS BACK THE VOICE OF SZA’S MOTHER, HEARD EXTENSIVELY THROUGH CTRL. PHOEBE BRIDGERS ALSO FEATURES ON “GHOST IN THE MACHINE.” THE TRACK HAS A TENSE AND UNCANNY SOUND UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE ON SOS, BUT IT WORKS SURPRISINGLY WELL FOR BOTH ARTISTS.

[Ghost in the Machine clip]

AT 23 TRACKS, SOS IS BY FAR SZA’S BIGGEST PROJECT. ACCORDINGLY, IT’S BEEN BY FAR HER MOST SUCCESSFUL ONE AS WELL. RELEASED ON DECEMBER 9 OF 2022, IT DEBUTED AT NUMBER 1 ON THE BILLBOARD 200 CHART. IT’S STAYED AT

NUMBER ONE EVER SINCE, REACHING SIX CONSECUTIVE WEEKS THIS PAST MONDAY. THAT’S THE LONGEST FOR ANY R&B/HIP-HOP ALBUM SINCE DRAKE’S “VIEWS” BACK IN 2016.

AS SOS BEGAN TO GROW MORE AND MORE SUCCESSFUL ON THE CHARTS, COMPARISONS BEGAN TO ARISE BETWEEN SZA AND TAYLOR SWIFT, WHO JUST RELEASED HER RECORD-BREAKING “MIDNIGHTS.” BOTH ARTISTS WERE RELEASING NEW BUNDLES TO BOOST “KILL BILL” AND “ANTI-HERO,” THEIR RESPECTIVE SINGLES. THEY ALSO BOTH RECENTLY ANNOUNCED NATIONAL TOURS. BOTH WILL BECOMING TO THE CHICAGO AREA: SZA IN LATE FEBRUARY AND TAYLOR IN JUNE.

PREDICTABLY, AS THE TWO ALBUMS BEGAN TO MATCH EACH OTHER COMMERCIALLY, THE TWITTER DISCOURSE BETWEEN THE RESPECTIVE FANBASES GOT NASTIER.

[PO] Obviously there is some competition, like pretty open competition between her and Taylor. Do you think the roll out was at all sort of influenced by that?

[SJ] Absolutely not. I don’t think so. Taylor Swift is very, very, very, very conscious about her fan base and how they operate, whereas SZA’S there to put out what she wants to put out. And once again, whatever everybody else thinks is what they think.

AND WHEN I ASKED BRANDEN HOW HE THOUGHT SZA WAS COMPETING ON THE CHARTS WITH A PROJECT LIKE MIDNIGHTS:

[BC] Maybe because of how novel she kind of is. If that makes sense. Taylor Swift has been around for a while. And, like, she’s obviously going to always have her fan base, but it’s very steady, but SZA’s just popping in and out every once in a while. I feel like that is what gets people crazy.

WHEN AN INTERVIEWER FOR HOT 97 ASKED SZA ABOUT THE MEANING OF HER

ALBUM COVER, WHICH SHOWS HER SITTING ON A DIVING BOARD IN THE

MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN, SHE SEEMED SURPRISED AT SZA’S FRANK RESPONSE.

[SZA’s response about referencing Princess Diana in her album cover]

COMAPRING HERSELF TO PRINCESS DIANA RIGHT BEFORE SHE DIED IS

ALARMING. THEN NAMING THE ALBUM SOS, BOTH A REFERENCE TO A

CHILDHOOD NICKNAME AS WELL AS THE ACRONYM FOR SAVE OUR SHIP, ALMOST MAKES THE ALBUM SEEM LIKE A CRY FOR HELP. IS SZA BEING PUSHED TOO FAR? DOES SHE FEEL SOME SORT OF IMPENDING COLLAPSE FOR HERSELF?

THE PEACE CONVEYED BY THE ALBUM COVER, ESPECIALLY THE ANIMATED

COVER, TELLS A DIFFERENT STORY. WHETHER THIS MEANS SHE’LL RETIRE OR

START ANOTHER PROJECT, SOS MIGHT JUST BE A VISION FOR HERSELF. A VISION OF LIVING ON HER OWN TERMS AND RECONNECTING WITH THE WORLD AROUND HER.

REPORTING FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M PAUL O’CONNOR.