Last Friday, Solána Imani Rowe, professionally known as SZA, dropped her newest album, SOS.
SZA is notorious for her angelic voice and sharing her personal confessions within her music, which she resembled yet again in SOS. Additionally, SZA created a versatile album, including multiple genres, making it an album for all ears to enjoy.
Her songs have already made their way to the top, here are some of my favorite pieces within the album.
14: “Nobody Gets Me”
This single contributes a beautiful and warm vibe towards the audience, providing a lyrical and slow song that relates to a fallen relationship that she hopes to rebuild. SZA portrays in the chorus a particular feeling of emptiness and loneliness.
“What’s left of you
How am I supposed to tell you
I don’t wanna see you with anyone but me?
Nobody gets me like you
How am I supposed to let you go?
Only like myself when I’m with you
Nobody gets me, you do.” SZA sings.
Her attachment to this specific individual shows that she developed a deep and true connection within their relationship. When the relationship dried up, she still undeniably had a growing connection within her heart for this person. This shows vulnerability, which gives her audience the authenticity of a real and complex relationship.
“Personally, I love the song so much, because I can relate the song to multiple aspects of my life,” senior Austin Kunter said. “It formulated how I feel whenever I feel as though I’m losing or drifting apart from someone.”
22: “Good Days”
“Good Days” was previously released as a single on December 25, 2020. Undeniably, the song truly gave a majority of her fanbase a breath of fresh air during the pandemic. The heavenly and soulful single issued a positive and progressive message for her listeners personal well-being.
SZA starts the single with:
“Good day in my mind, safe to take a step out
Get some air now, let your edge out.”
Without a doubt, SZA issues her audience with a valuable outlook on existence and pushes growth within the first two lines.
“The beginning of the song almost sounds like magic before she starts singing. It’s relaxing,” senior Uwiteye Nkulikiyinka said. “She’s recognizing that she needs a break and needs to take some time to herself, and I love it.”
This song undeniably helped me develop a positive perspective on my everyday life, showing me that even with the bad days, the good days are yet to come. This single handedly expresses to the listeners to take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the present moment that is in front of you.
“Whenever I listen to ‘Good Days’ in a bad mindset, It completely changes my perspective on my situation to a more positive outlook,” junior Sylvia VanCarterberg said. “It’s a great reminder to take a deep breath and visualize the good times in the future.”
16: “Special”
SZA has the power to touch her audience’s heart with very relatable content. In “Special,” SZA compares herself to the societal beauty standard. I believe in this generation, it is hard not to compare oneself to one another. By creating this piece, the artist provides a sanctuary for those who carry the similar feeling of being unable to keep up with society standards.
“I wish I was that girl from that Gucci store
She never wore any makeup and she owns couture
I got pimples where my beauty marks should be
I got dry skin on my elbows and knees
I never liked her, wanted to be like her
Hate how you look at her, ’cause you never saw me
Like was an arm piece, like I was an ordinary girl.” SZA sings.
SZA resembles herself as an art piece, connecting her and other individuals. This piece is extremely special due to the correlation to the same message in “Normal Girl” in her 2017 album, CTRL.
5: “Love Language”
“Love Language” is ultimately a faster paced song, giving her audience something to nod their head to. SZA speaks on behalf of the difficulty of loving someone in or out of a relationship.
“Needing you to talk to me in your love language
Show me, yeah, how to connect to you
Help me understand
How you speak your love language,” SZA sings.
Specifically, SZA is trying to connect with a loved one by developing knowledge of their love language, to help build a deeper connection within their relationship. A love language is how an individual indicates how they feel to their significant other. The most significant component of this single is the angelic and symbolic ending.
“All that I know is mirrors inside me
They recognize you, please don’t deny me,” SZA sings in the end.
SZA ends this masterpiece of a song by adding a small excerpt of her September 2020 single, “Hit Different,” featuring hip-hop artist Ty Dolla Sign. SZA is trying to tell her partner that she is reflecting on herself and their relationship, hoping that they don’t deny her reflections. Additionally, adding this excerpt reveals that “Hit Different” may have been included in SOS, but it was then removed from the track list.
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SZA’s monumental album, SOS, will undeniably impress and inspire her listeners. Unsurprisingly, she already has. As of December 14, SZA has reached the #1 spot for most streamed artist globally on Spotify and on top of that, SZA has also become the first black female artist to grasp the #1 spot of the most streamed artist, after the release of SOS.
Along with dropping this chart-breaking album, SZA announced her intention to go on tour starting February 21. SZA plans to come to Little Caesar Arena in Detroit on February 24, with tickets going on sale to the public on Friday, December 16.
SZA has wowed us with her influential moves and will continue to climb the music industry mountain on behalf of her new album, SOS.
