SZA is back, people, and not just with her R&B hits! Let’s just start by thanking SZA for releasing this album this month and upping the game for all of the music that is yet to be released by other artists in the upcoming year. Since the release of her album, the singer has been flooded with positive reviews, and has gained thousands of new fans from her instantaneous popularity on Tiktok and Twitter. After a five-year hiatus, the singer has finally dropped her second album, SOS—the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s Ctrl album.
On Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, music artist and, most recently, Saturday Night Live co-host SZA released her newest album in five years (and her last album ever) to music platforms everywhere. For dedicated SZA fans like myself, this was simultaneously the best and worst news released for fans in all of SZA’s career. Fortunately, we were blessed with a sprawling, 23-song-deep tracklist where the artist somehow manages to hit every single genre of music in a single album. So far, reviews on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok have been mixed. Some listeners seem completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material and styles she covered, while SZA’s Instagram comments have flooded with praise.
SOS is, seemingly, an experimental album for the artist as she is heard rapping, singing ballads, and even playing with a pop-punk-rock sound. And, honestly, it’s all complete perfection. The album exhibits the rawest and most realistic parts of SZA and her stylistic music choices, making you reminisce or disregard the hiatus of emotions from the past three years. In this album, she opens up about her insecurities, the hurt of her relationships, the feelings that she experienced with her ex, and any of the experiences she wanted to open up about after the past five years of leaving her fans without an album. SZA really put her whole heart, soul, mind, and spirit into this album. Listeners all over the world are enjoying her voice as she reportedly surpassed a whopping 68 million streams on Spotify in a single day for her entire album, coming at number 15 as the “Most Streamed Album in a Single Day.”
Out of the 23 flawless songs on the album, I’ve managed to create a top 15 list for those who aren’t the biggest SZA fans but still want to experience the album’s hype: #1. “Conceited;” #2 “Notice Me;” #3 “Nobody Gets Me,” #4 “Love Language,” #5 “SOS,” #6 “Low,” #7 “Smoking on my Ex Pack,” #8 “Kill Bill,” #9 “Blind,” #10 “Ghost in the Machine (feat. Phoebe Bridgers),” #11 “I Hate You,” #12 “F2F,” #13 “Shirt,” #14 “Far,” #15 “Special.” These 15 songs give a perfect mix of the vibe and styles of the album without having to listen to the full 23. Songs like “Conceited” and “Notice Me” have a more pop sound, “Love Language,” “I Hate You,” “Shirt,” and “Far” are more of a classic R&B, and if you’re looking for a complete change in genre, try listening to “Low,” “F2F,” “Nobody Gets Me,” or “Special.” I suggest listening to these songs on shuffle so you can be surprised by which genre of SZA you’re blessed with. And even if you’re completely against SZA’s music, at least listen to the first five songs of this list; you’ll probably end up wanting to listen to more.
Since the release of her album, the artist posted on her Instagram announcing an upcoming national tour in Spring 2023. I don’t know about you, but I will be first in line for Ticketmaster’s SOS tour ticket release in the following days.