The second album by R&B sensation SZA has certainly been long-awaited. But, given her notoriously perfectionist nature and claims her debut was only released because her label got sick of waiting and stole her hard drive, it’s no surprise we’ve waited five years for the follow up to ‘CTRL’.
After album one’s stellar songwriting and expansive approach to hip-hop and R&B catapulted SZA to almost overnight success, something that she’s openly struggled to deal with, ‘SOS’ carries with it a heavy burden of expectation. Having earlier suggested that this might be her final release, it would certainly be one hell of a way to bow out. Let’s hope that’s not the case, though.
The mercurial star has made an art of intimate, deftly layered songs that, rather than grappling openly with her newfound fame, instead focuses on more relatable topics from lost love to rejection, all the while throwing as much at the wall as possible musically.
That approach naturally leads to a sense of unevenness. With F2F, SZA channels country-pop with a stadium-ready chorus that seems incongruous and is sadly one of the few moments where the eclecticism doesn’t work. On the other hand, Nobody Gets Me almost draws on Taylor Swift while still sounding entirely singular.
There’s a looseness and confessional feeling to these songs, with tongue occasionally planted in cheek such as on the twisted lullaby Kill Bill, where SZA jokingly considers, “I might kill my ex/Not the best idea.” Moments such as this make ‘SOS’ feel far more relatable than some of her peers, with ‘SOS’ coming off as both innovative and fun.
Five years on from such an arresting, star-making debut, SZA has delivered on its promise and more. The biggest issue ‘SOS’ has is, at 23 tracks, that there can be too much of a good thing.
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