Mar 8

Mar 8 SZA - SOS

SZA
SOS
Release Date: December 9th, 2022
Label: TDE/RCA

Review by Jared Stossel

SOS is a chronicle of heartbreak and all of the phases that accompany it. The album is structured perfectly over twenty-three songs, its beginning-middle-end perfectly notated by the tracks in which R&B vocalist SZA delivers a rap verse with aplomb. In these three moments, she is filled with confidence, sure of herself and her headspace, only for the beat to fade away as we find her lost in the emotional tidal waves of heartbreak. The album cover speaks miles to the concept of SOS: the acclaimed vocalist is sitting atop a diving board that is cast out over a deep blue sea. Even when you’re at the top of the world, you can still feel alone.

The follow-up to SZA’s critically acclaimed debut Ctrl finds her five years removed from its release, spending the course of the sixty-seven-minute album coming to grips with the end of a relationship and pouring her soul into the music. She manages to take moments that should be incredibly dark, spin them around with a hypnotic beat, and pump out lyrics that reflect the racing thoughts in her mind. On “Kill Bill”, she breathily delivers lines like “I might kill my ex/Not the best idea/His new girlfriend’s next/How’d I get here?” with such sweetness that you’d almost let her get away with it. Her lyricism throughout the first half of SOS walks the line between bitingly poignant and comic amusement, reflecting on this pain that’s been caused while simultaneously having fun with her songwriting (“Chances are, I’ve got no direction/Beggin’ my angels for protection/Danger arise, and I deflect it/New dick arrives, and I erect it” on “Seek & Destroy”).

The first side of SOS wanders through SZA’s inner psyche, hypnotic in nature as an array of synths and drum machines permeates the soundscape, out for revenge at one moment, in her feels on the next track. These feelings nearly come to a head on “Gone Girl”, letting her voice shine as she decides what ‘demons she digests’ (“Trying to find deeper meaning in nonsense/Trying to grow without hating the process/Tired of anticipating the worst, yet/Still anticipating the worst”).

The rap verse that comprises “Smoking On My Ex Pack” leads into the second half of SOS, which is started by “Ghost in the Machine”, featuring Phoebe Bridgers. Both of their voices work rather well together, and I found it to be the best collaboration on SOS. It’s melancholy but leads toward a feeling of relief and happiness. It’s in the second half of SOS that SZA truly proves she has the potential to be one of the greatest in R&B (as if debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 and staying on the charts for ten weeks wasn’t enough proof).

An acoustic guitar is found throughout most of the album’s second half, creating a more organic sound that is kicked off with “F2F”, my personal favorite track from the record. It conveys everything you’d find in a modern pop-punk song, with a catchy chorus and lyrics like “Get a rise out of watching you fall/Get a kick out of missing your call/I hate me enough for the two of us” that would fit in perfectly on any edition of the Vans Warped Tour. This is followed by the beautifully sung “Nobody Gets Me”, which leads into a run of songs that find SZA quickly navigating the various emotions of a breakup: confidence (“Conceited”), sadness (“Special”), regret (“Too Late”), and freedom (“Far”).

There is a juxtaposition throughout SOS that is clever; one minute it’s “I Hate U”, and the next it's reminiscing about the “Good Days”. The album closes with “Forgiveless”, which is punctuated by a posthumous verse from Wu-Tang Clan’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard, SZA duetting with the late rapper as the track fades.

In addition to Phoebe Bridgers, there are guest spots from artists like Don Toliver and Travis Scott. The moments in which they appear are fine, but these aren’t the high points of the album. Ironically, SZA is at her best on SOS when she’s on her own, using the music to navigate the oceanic expanses of her inner mind, and the emotional baggage that comes with falling in and out of love.