Album review: S.O.S. by SZA

Artist SZA released her sophomore album, S.O.S., at midnight on December 8. Read on for a full album review. Catch more pop culture chat at Content Consumed.

Fans have been frothing at the mouth about the timeline for this album release. In April, SZA said the album was just finished in Hawaii and coming very soon. In May at the Met Gala, she said it’d be a “SZA Summer”. In October, it was “any day now.”

We got “Good Days” and “Shirt” and TikTok-viral “I Hate U” to tide us over, and now…

My god, the full album was worth the wait.

I’d say I’m getting to be fluent in SZAese. You know, how she strings words together and pronounces things you’d never imagined could be pronounced in such a way.

You’ve gotta Google lyrics, and they’re absolutely worth Googling, because it’s SZA and SZA has retained her status as a Voice of This Generation with her second official album, S.O.S., released last night.

And it’s twenty-three songs.

“S.O.S.”, the first track, boldly samples the same song Drake did for “Champagne Poetry”, the first track on Certified Lover Boy and a top song of all time for me. She’s fearless and I love it.

“Seek and Destroy” has me dancing around at 10 a.m. in the morning in a way not much music could do. “Kill Bill” will be the one that everyone, collectively, decides is probably the best of the album. “Low” was made for smoky clubs and cig breaks outside them, and “Love Language” right after falls into classic R&B slow jams (even referencing the genre within the lyrics).

And that’s just the first five songs.

Trigger-pull reactions to more standout songs in the rest of the tracklist:

• “Blind”—Felt like I was floating. Ocean waves, beautiful guitar strings, an airy and breathy ballad about mismatched expectations (ex: Plan B vs. babies).
• “Used”—There aren’t many features on this 23-track album and this is easily the best. Don Toliver’s rasp matches SZA’s voice so well. It’s a natural collab.
• “Gone Girl”—This’ll definitely be another fan favorite. The chorus is catchy as hell and the choir’s inclusion is impactful. A poetic breakup song.
• “Smoking on my Ex Pack” — Yes! SZA rapping! God, she’s versatile. 1 minute and 23 seconds of perfection.
• “F2F”—Somehow a revenge sex song with a pop-punk chorus and country undertones? How does she do it—and pull it off?!
• “Conceited”—The beat immediately reminded me of Doja Cat’s Planet Her… when are we getting another Doja/SZA collab? The chorus is a little repetitive for my taste though.

It’s all very intimate. It feels like we’re being told secrets, confessions about what SZA’s been going through personally since we last heard from her in 2017’s debut Ctrl.

My only critiques: Travis Scott’s feature was underwhelming (def not a “Doves in the Wind” type of thing) and there was maybe one too many slow ballads for one album. Also, I’m not a Phoebe Bridgers gal, so I can’t really speak to that.

SZA’s definitely not done messing around in relationships and figuring herself out. Her otherworldly talent can’t really be matched. It was going to be difficult to even match the virtuoso of Ctrl, but she’s done it.

Worth. The. Wait.

Get more pop culture analysis every weekday with Content Consumed.