Her Campus at U Ottawa acknowledges that we are located on the stolen and unsurrendered land of the Algonquin people.
New music is always so exciting. It allows new listeners to find a new potential favourite artist, and much more! Recently, SZA dropped a new album titled SOS, five years after her previous album, Ctrl. In this new album, SZA explores topics similar to the previous release—she delves into issues surrounding female insecurity, self-scrutiny, and dealing with the male ego.
The song “Kill Bill” gained popularity almost instantly after it was released. It’s about how self-delusion can affect one’s character. Lines like “I might kill my ex, not the best idea / His new girlfriend’s next, how’d I get here” show how her state of mind following a situation of betrayal is getting to her.
The whole song is basically a conversation with herself and explores feelings of betrayal from her previous relationship. She tries to rationalize her intrusive thoughts and behaviours, saying, “I’m so mature/ I got me a therapist,” as a sort of pat on the back. Along with a mix of mid-tempo R&B, these lyrics create an insanely catchy song. The use of her typical major chord progression also allows the overall tone of the song to be absolutely wild. The theme of female insecurity, as well as self-scrutiny, plays a part here as the song revolves around her ex doing activities with another person. SZA realizes that she’s delusional, and battles between intrusive thoughts and rationality.
The next song up is ‘Low.” It’s one of my favourites because we haven’t heard SZA create a trap beat until this one. The song is about keeping a casual relationship with no strings attached. The lyrics “if you see me out in public you don’t know me, keep it silent,” basically confirms that. Additionally, it touches on how people may be nosy about her business, embodying a “don’t test me, I can ruin your life” vibe. “Low” is one of those songs where the meaning isn’t as deep compared to others, which helps listeners find a balance between themes. Not everything has to be that deep, and I think that this song proves just that, especially from a relationship perspective. This is also the only song where SZA speaks about female insecurity and the male ego from an outside perspective. It’s new and refreshing, both in a musical and conceptual aspect.
The last song I’m going to touch on is “Open Arms.” It revolves around devotion and how she accepts her partner through absolutely everything, even if it means getting shut out by them. I also just want to point out that this is the first song on which Travis Scott had a feature and didn’t ruin (“Love Galore”). One of the most lyrically pleasant lines in the whole album is actually sung by him: “You my favourite colour/ Now you seein’ every shade of me.” As the song progresses, the perspective is changed, and the masculine voice is the one who is reaching out to SZA. She concludes the song with “Gotta let you go / Only when it’s dragging me down.” This song combats the stereotypical male ego and explores how being in a hot and cold relationship affects her insecurities. Why she lets him go can be taken in two ways: either she is finally shown the love that she deserves, but doesn’t know how to react to it since she isn’t used to it; or she realizes it’s not worth it going through all these hardships. Overall, there’s something about this pop ballad that just gets you.
SZA definitely had a huge range of styles within this album with songs such as “Conceited” and “Far.” However, this article only briefly touches on my personal favourite songs. There are so many more great hits on this album—some honourable mentions are “Blind” and “Snooze.” I recommend listening to the whole album and finding what songs are your favourites!