Hayley George, Features Editor
@hayleygcourant1
Alessandra Gass, Features Editor
@agasscourant
With the release of her second album SOS, R&B artist SZA is making headlines across the country. Her debut album, Ctrl, was released in 2017, leaving fans eager for more. SOS contains 23 tracks, including features from popular artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and others. In this blog, we’ll be talking about our favorite songs from an outstanding compilation of diverse cohesivity.
- F2F
“F2F” arrives halfway through the album like whiplash. The first verse is a fake-out with SZA singing over acoustic strums before the electric guitars come crashing in. It’s a perfect punctuation for the chorus, which features one of the most quotable verses on an album full of them: “Get a rise out of watching you fall / Get a kick out of missing your call / I hate me enough for the two of us.”
2. Gone Girl
Gone Girl marks SZA’s loss of one version of herself to the next, or, more acutely, that uncomfortable moment pinpointing the change internally before it’s apparent to the outside world. Serving as both an inner monologue and a PSA for anyone thinking they’re about to get the 2017 version of SZA that wrote Ctrl, “Gone Girl” fully faces the realization that she isn’t the same person. She highlights this by saying: “Trying to find a deeper meaning in the nonsense / Trying to grow without hating the process,” she professes this with the help of earnest piano and a subtle supporting choir…”You better learn how to face that she’s gone, gone girl.”
3. Open Arms
The lyrics of Open Arms are one of the biggest reasons why it’s made this list – she says, “So here I am / With open arms / Hoping you’ll see / What your love means to me / Open arms.” Though SZA is known for mellow R&B, her vocal performance in this particular song is truly outstanding. The cherry on top of this song was the collaboration with Travis Scott, as their alternate style and differing range of voice allows for a dynamic feature.
4. Blind
Blind is a song about the inner conflicts one has while in a toxic relationship. In the lyrics, SZA gives many symbolic hints about the complicated romantic relationships been in, exposing her difficulties and the dark sides of her that draw her to the situation. She knows that she has an image of love living inside her, pushing her to see something good where her eyes lay, even when the reality is not so. That’s why she feels “blind”: a part of her knows that her man is not the right fit for her, but every time she looks at the actual situation with her eyes, she seems to lose this awareness, leading her to wrong decisions. Metaphorically, she’s blind because her eyes fail to provide the necessary fact checks she needs. This concept is evident when she admits that a part of her likes the toxic elements she sees in her man. “I can’t see it / It’s so embarrassing / All of the love I seek living inside of me / I can’t see, I’m blind.”
5. Kill Bill
Kill Bill is the second song on the album, and is currently SZA’s most popular song. After the release of SOS, Kill Bill took off on the popular social media app TikTok. Videos of people lip syncing “I might kill my ex, not the best idea / His new girlfriend’s next, how’d I get here?” suddenly flooded the For You page, helping to catalyst SOS into further popularity. But where are these gruesome but playful lyrics inspired from? The song is actually based on the popular movies Kill Bill Volume 1,and Kill Bill Volume 2. In the movies, we see an assassin on her quest to “Kill Bill,” her former employer and ex. SZA’s incorporation of this fun, relatable movie. While these combined factors lead the song to be overplayed, its catchy rhythm and bridge allow for an amazing listening experience.
