I remember where I was and what I was feeling when I first heard SZA — “Broken Clocks” off her debut album Ctrl (2017) — which is why her second studio album, SOS, released just this month, is a well-balanced blend of nostalgia and freshness for me.
SOS was not an easy project; supposedly completed in January 2020, it took almost three full years to release to the public. SZA has not been explicit in her music with commentary on the music industry as other artists have, but we can absolutely hear frustration and anger in “Kill Bill” and a form of grief and sobriety in “Gone Girl” and the album’s standout for me, “Nobody Gets Me”. This just goes to show SZA’s range skewing more introspective and atmospheric-instrumental (“indie emo”) since Ctrl, which was drier instrumentally and higher beat lyrically.
Returning to “Nobody Gets Me”; starts off a little more aggressive than I’d expect from SZA (character growth…) but becomes painfully real lyrically accented by a raw falsetto and chorus at the instrumental swells of the track:
How am I supposed to let you go?
Only like myself when I’m with you
SZA’s music has harbored this indescribably poignant “heartbreak undercurrent” which undoubtedly caters to her primary audience but on SOS there is a genius empowering transition from “Nobody Gets Me” to “Conceited”. We go from a downbeat chorus-dominant “Nobody Gets Me” to upbeat, defiant drum-dominant “Conceited”:
I don’t like nobody, I don’t feel guilty about it […]
I got no reason to depend on you […]
I got everything I need and I want more
Congratulations SZA on a certified good album. Looking forward to the next.