SZA – ‘SOS Deluxe: Lana’ review: chasing tranquility amid the chaos of love, life and fame
The protracted rollout of this deluxe album reveals a perfectionist pop girl in transition
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The roll-out ofSZA’s ‘Lana’, billed as a deluxe edition of2022’s ‘SOS’, has been undoubtedly confusing. The project first arrived two years after its Grammy-winning parent album. An extended version of ‘Lana’ has now materialised two months after its original release – a month later than expected – coinciding with SZA’s appearance asKendrick Lamar‘s guest atthe Super Bowl LIX halftime show in New Orleans.
But SZA has never been like those remote pop queensBeyoncé andLady Gaga: she’s a chronically online perfectionist who overshares. Similar toCharli XCX, SZA’s messy persona is intrinsic to her relatability. She freely exposes flaws and fantasies, declaring self-destructive tendencies in the otherwise understated ‘Take You Down’:“Do you mean it when you say it? / I believe it ’cause you’re my fuckin’ favourite / I took the bait / I lick the poison, baby, over and over again.”
For the most part, the confessional singer-songwriter isn’t simply opportunistically officialising leaked tracks and emptying the vaults of outtakes before embarking on her next phase. The ‘Lana’ songs reveal a more obvious emotional and narrative arc. Personal growth is at the fore. The record is the product of a music industry in which even formats are in flux. And SZA, too, is experiencing transformation.
On the Balearic intro ‘No More Hiding’, a surprisingly sanguine SZA ponders toxic romance, resolving to detach and be true to herself:“I wanna feel sun on my skin / Even if it burns or blinds me.” She abandons trap-soul – ‘Lana’ is all acoustic soul and loungecore, reminiscent ofKali Uchis. The singer flirts with bossa nova on the poppy ‘BMF’, riffing off the jazz standard ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ as she eyes a crush.
The new jewel is ‘Joni’ – a popular “leak” dating from 2020. SZA’s take on Laurel Canyon folk is indebted aesthetically toJoni Mitchell, but samples Elliott Smith’s 1997 ‘Angeles’ (the Auto-Tuned verse byDon Toliver, who previously featured on ‘SOS’s’ ‘Used’, is superfluous). SZA offers her most poetic lyrics as she laments the sacrifices necessitated by striving:“Summer’s over and the money gone / I miss my mama when the tide is low / Moon corrals us to the water and my daddy calls on his / Favourite daughter for a host of loving words, I might oblige him.”
The rage SZA expressed on the deceptively breezy ‘SOS’ cut ‘Kill Bill’ still simmers in ‘What Do I Do’, where she catches a cheating boyfriend. But, in the psych-rock stomper ‘Scorsese Baby Daddy’, SZA good-humouredly admits to being“addicted to the drama” of a dysfunctional relationship. More insightful is ‘Crybaby’, where SZA acknowledges her contradictory public image (“I’m so sick of me too”) and accepts self-accountability.
‘PSA’, a repurposed ‘bonus’ from a digital edition of ‘SOS’, may be SZA’s prettiest song – a cross between Laura Mvula’s pastoral neo-soul and Kanye West’s 2010s prog-hop symphonics with synthetic instrumentation and choral layers. It brings ‘Lana’ full circle, SZA demanding deference:“I don’t want nobody callin’ me anything but number one.”
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‘Lana’ heralds SZA’s status as a pop girl. But, subsumed into ‘SOS’, which now stands at 42 tracks, it represents less an era than a transition. ‘Lana’ might have been stronger as a mixtape, a coda to ‘SOS’. But the question now is: what will SZA do next – and when?
Details
- Record label: Top Dawg Entertainment / RCA Records
- Release date: December 20, 2024 / February 9, 2025 (updated version)