After the 2022 release of the hit album, SOS, SZA fans have been waiting two years for the release. The long wait was worth it as she dropped the long-awaited SOS Deluxe: LANA.
This album, released on Dec 20, serves as an early Christmas gift to her die-hard fans and common music listeners. In 2023, SZA teased LANA and announced that it would be a separate album. In February SZA released a single called “Saturn” to promote the upcoming album. The song was critically acclaimed and reached 700 million streams on Spotify in a year.
The album itself has one guest appearance from fellow artist and long-time friend Kendrick Lamar. The 15-song album was added to the already 23-song album of SOS.
The intro of the album is “No More Hiding.” This song is SZA singing angelically on a slow, calming beat with rainy sounds in the background. In the song, she explores feelings of letting go and evolving. “No More Hiding” then transitions through a phone call to the next song “What Do I Do” where SZA catches her partner cheating. She sings over the beat, contemplating what to do with the situation. The next song, “30 for 30,” contains a feature from Kendrick Lamar. This is the duo’s eighth song collaboration. The song starts off with a sample of Switch’s “I Call Your Name.” SZA and Kendrick go verse for verse back and forth as they assert self-respect by chasing inner peace even with problems that arise. This song gives off a good vibe and is overall a great song.
The mood of the album completely switches from overly happy to a somber song called “Diamond Boy (DTM).” This song explores SZA devoting herself to a guy, to the point where she does not know if she is devoted to herself. I love the calm feel it gives the album. The mood then dramatically switches to another happy song “BMF.” This is arguably one of the popular songs of the album as it became popular on social media. “BMF” is mostly SZA singing about how much she loves her man. The next three songs feel like filler songs. They were short and surface-level. However the 10th song of the album “Crybaby” was a beautiful song. There is much more depth as she sings to a slowed beat in which she acknowledges her personal flaws.
The 11th song of the album is “Kitchen.” It samples the instrumental of “Voyage to Atlantis” by The Isley Brothers. SZA seems to have gone out of her comfort zone with this song as it sounds a lot like 80’s pop. It gives off a unique vibe. There is then an interlude that leads into the most teased song of the album, “Drive.” It was posted to her social media with a visual of Ben Stiller singing along as he was, ironically, driving. This song is then continued by “Another Life” and the most admired song of the album, “Saturn.”
To me, the standout song of this album was “Kitchen.” It was a fresh type of song that I had not seen much from SZA. My least favorite song was probably “My Turn” which was in the middle of the album and was a skip on the album.
This makes me come to the conclusion that this album is a solid 7/10.
