SZA Album Reviews

Solána Imani Rowe was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up with a Christian mother and a Muslim father. She studied marine biology at the University of Delaware, dropping out during her last semester.

SZA created her stage name from the Supreme Alphabet, influenced by the Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA. The last two letters in her name represent Zig-Zag and Allah, while the first letter S means either saviour or sovereign.

Influenced by jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, SZA despises genre labels. She stated that “when you try to label it, you remove the option for it to be limitless. It diminishes the music.” Both of her albums to date are highly acclaimed. SZA is a prolific writer, who only releases the best of her songs to the general public. There’s been a lot of intelligent, arty, and expansive R&B in the 21st century – Jamila Woods, Janelle Monae, and Dawn Richard are talented contemporaries – but SZA might have the best catalogue of all her contemporaries so far.

A third record, Lana, is scheduled for October 2024. Originally planned as part of a deluxe version of SOS, it was decided it was strong enough to warrant a separate release.

SZA Album Reviews

Ctrl

2017, 8.5/10
SZA signed to Top Dawg Entertainment in 2013, but it took four years for her debut record to emerge. Ctrl was originally scheduled for 2015 but was delayed as she struggled with anxiety. She kept reworking the album until her record company commandeered her hard drive.

SZA obsessively studied hit records from the 1940s to the 1980s, attempting to understand what made them work. Producer Rick Rubin encouraged her to leave space in her productions.

Ctrl starts edgily. The opener ‘Supermodel’ is sparse, with SZA singing confessional lyrics with a raw voice. ‘Doves in the Wind’ is particularly edgy, with Kendrick Lamar’s guest slot.

The record’s stronger when SZA embraces gorgeous balladry. Lovely songs like ‘Prom’ and ‘Normal Girl’ have gorgeous tunes and harmonies. ‘Drew Barrymore’ launches into a breathtaking chorus after plainspoken verses. The closer ’20 Something’ returns to the sparse sound of ‘Supermodel’, bringing the record full circle.

Ctrl starts slowly, but it announces SZA as a major talent.

SOS

2022, 9/10
Publishing end-of-year music lists has become like a nuclear arms race, pushing into early November. I get vindictive pleasure from SZA, an artist who’s both a big deal critically and commercially, releasing an outstanding album on 10 December, effectively obsoleting many premature lists.

It’s lengthy, stretching over an hour with 23 tracks, but it’s excellent. Like Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, it uses its length to stretch out over other genres – in the case of SOS, it drifts away from SZA’s usual alternative R&B to explore mainstream pop/rock. I enjoy SZA’s introspection here, as her meditations on a breakup provide continuity as the record opens up. Her voice is rich, her lyrics are insightful, and her melodies are robust.

The run of ten songs at the opening is strong and conventional – the advance single ‘Kill Bill’ and the pretty breakup tune ‘Gone Girl’ are both terrific. The record opens up with the silliness of ‘Smoking on my Ex Pack’ before Phoebe Bridgers cameos on ‘Ghost in the Machine’. There’s music here that sounds far removed from SZA’s usual oeuvre – in particular, halfway through the record, the transition to the Avril Lavigne-style guitar rock of ‘F2F’ is jarring, SOS ends strongly – ‘Good Days’ is pretty and Wu-Tang’s Ol’ Dirty Bastard contributes a posthumous verse to ‘Forgiveless’.

The sprawl of SOS may deter some listeners, but it’s impressively consistent.

LANA

2024, 7.5/10
SZA again ignored the usual tradition of not releasing albums in December. Lana was released less than a week before Christmas. It’s largely an album of SOS leftovers, although the recording sessions continued after SOS‘s release.

The album title is derived from SZA’s real name, Solana. SZA got a tattoo when she was 13, but could only afford four letters and opted for “Lana”.

As you’d expect from a bunch of outtakes, it’s a step down from SOS. But SZA is good enough that even her outtakes are worth hearing. It’s low-key, with Kendrick Lamar the only guest star.

Often she’s best when she’s working on exquisite balladry like the advance single ‘Saturn’ and ‘Diamond Boy (DTM)’. My favourite song, however, is ‘Scorcese Baby Daddy’, with an energetic beat and warm harmonies.

Lana is an impressive outtakes collection, but it’s a step below SZA’s first two records.