More than five years after her game-changing debut album, SZA has finally released her long-awaited follow-up, “SOS.”
On Dec. 3, SZA served as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live,” hosted by Keke Palmer, and while performing her latest single, “Shirt,” she revealed the day of her sophomore album’s arrival on the screen behind her: Dec. 9. Two days later, SZA also tweeted the tracklist for “SOS,” which comes a few days after she shared the album’s ocean-set cover art.
Last month, in her Billboard cover story, published on Nov. 16, the R&B singer confirmed her “SOS” album release. “I could literally burst into tears and run through this wall at any moment. I am effectively falling apart,” she confessed of meeting fans’ expectations. “But it’s not like, the album pressure . . . It’s just, life is f-king hard. To be expected to do anything at a high level while life is life-ing is f-king crazy. This isn’t meant for a person; it’s meant for a machine.”
SZA continues to follow her musical intuition for this next phase of her career, which seemingly began in December 2020 after she released her “Good Days” track — which was, at the time, her first solo single in two years. One year later, she followed that up with “I Hate U” before she dropped the cinematic visual for her single “Shirt,” starring LaKeith Stanfield, on Oct. 28. Shortly after her “SNL” appearance, SZA shared a teaser for the studio version of “Blind” on Instagram, which she also performed on “SNL.”
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Billboard’s Heran Mamo previewed the album ahead of its release and noted that it features SZA’s “beloved lo-fi beats,” “a grunge record,” and “an acoustic guitar-driven ballad.” Meanwhile, RCA Records chairman and CEO Peter Edge is already calling her project “one of the most important albums of the year.”
Listen to the album ahead.