{"id":4673,"date":"2022-12-31T17:56:56","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T22:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/read.streamapse.com\/?p=4673"},"modified":"2024-04-12T16:29:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T21:29:28","slug":"sza-the-sophomore-outing-shows-a-new-side-to-her-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/?p=4673","title":{"rendered":"SZA &#8211; The Sophomore Outing Shows A New Side To Her Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2017, <i>Ctrl<\/i>\u2014a 14-track project rife with songs about love, sex, self-doubt, and heartbreak\u2014became one of the most influential albums in R&amp;B. <i>Ctrl<\/i> was the soundtrack for many people in their twenties, highlighting the growing pains of young adulthood. SZA\u2019s vulnerability and raw honesty, coupled with ultra-relatable lyrics full of diary-like ruminations and conversations from friend group chats, are what made her debut so impactful.<\/p>\n<p>Where <i>Ctrl<\/i> reflected SZA\u2019s journey towards finding self-love and acceptance, her long-awaited sophomore LP <i>SOS<\/i> finds the St. Louis-born singer-songwriter dealing with some of the same topics of love and relationships from a more self-assured place. She ditches the uncertainties of her romantic entanglements to save herself\u2014most of the time. On the soulful and gritty album opener \u201cSOS,\u201d SZA reintroduces herself and says precisely what\u2019s on her mind after a night of crying over a lost relationship: \u201cI talk bullshit a lot\/No more fuck shit, I\u2019m done,\u201d she swaggers.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4674\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4674\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/streamapse-top-picks\/sza-sos\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4674\" src=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SZA-SOS.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SZA-SOS.jpg 700w, http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SZA-SOS-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SZA-SOS-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4674\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/streamapse-top-picks\/sza-sos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">STREAM SOS<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the only song that shows her weariness towards relationships that no longer serve her; see also \u201cSmoking on My Ex Pack\u201d and \u201cFar.\u201d She finds the confidence to know that she doesn\u2019t need to depend on a man to find happiness on \u201cConceited\u201d and \u201cForgiveless.\u201d However, not every song on the project is about moving on and leaving her past relationships behind her; SZA still has a penchant for making wrong decisions that may not end well for her (\u201cToo Late,\u201d \u201cF2F\u201d) and questions her worth in some instances (\u201cSpecial\u201d). The album sketches the ebbs and flows of emotions, with strength in one moment but deep regret and sadness the next. There\u2019s growth between her debut and sophomore album, not just lyrically but sonically as well, blending a mix of her beloved lo-fi beats and sharing space with grunge- and punk-inspired songs without any of it sounding out of place.<\/p>\n<p>On the Phoebe Bridgers collaboration \u201cGhost in the Machine,\u201d the duo take a deeper look at the realities of stardom, looking for a bit of humanity within their day-to-day interactions. The track is not only progressive in its use of strings and acoustic guitars but haunting in its vocal performance. Throughout the journey of <i>SOS<\/i>, there are moments of clarity and tenderness where SZA goes through the discomfort of healing while trying to find the deeper meaning within the trials and tribulations she endures. She embraces this new level of confidence in her life, where she isn\u2019t looking for anyone to save her from the depth of her emotions but instead is at peace with where she\u2019s at in life.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">SEE <strong>SZA<\/strong> LIVE<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ticketstream.streamapse.com\/concert-tours\/sza-2023-tour-tickets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4676\" src=\"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/SZA-BANNER_STREAMAPSE_RED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2004\" height=\"644\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2017, Ctrl\u2014a 14-track project rife with songs about love, sex, self-doubt, and heartbreak\u2014became one of the most influential albums in R&amp;B. Ctrl was the soundtrack for many people in their twenties, highlighting the growing pains of young adulthood. SZA\u2019s vulnerability and raw honesty, coupled with ultra-relatable lyrics full of diary-like ruminations and conversations from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,921,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-streamapse-highlights","category-streamapse-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5409,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4673\/revisions\/5409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}