thread of SZA

new song is incredible

it's so good, absurdly lush with all those woodwinds in the background

Good Days is lovely

i feel like this is quietly becoming a generation-defining song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p3zZoraK9g

(the vid, like the one for "hit different," teases another forthcoming song that sounds potentially great)

https://t.co/Wg1IvioVR6 dumping random thoughts

— SZA (@sza) August 22, 2021

three new tracks! but really what is going on with her & TDE if she's resorting to leaking stuff like this

seriously

at this point i hope she can just manage to get released from her contract or something, like her relationship with TDE has been terrible since before CTRL even & seems to only be worse now

all these songs are great smh

the way she released these is interesting in light of kendrick's announcement her twitter bio has "gone fish'n #TDE" as the location lol

i don't think kendrick has ever publicly had issues with them though, i figured he probably just wants to move to somewhere bigger now with his contract up, being a gigantic star & all, while sza was complaining about them preventing her from releasing music years before ctrl came out & has continued to blame them for her taking so long to put anything new out

new track are indeed great, "joni" is too short though

there’s clearly something going on at tde, most of its artists haven’t released new albums in many years

but yeah, i could see kendrick’s announcement as more of an indication that he wants to be in charge and not subject to top dawg’s whims

Joni is great, definitely want a full length version

full length version of "joni" is apparently planned for the album, with a guest

nice

you don't think ... ?

that’s right, she got graham nash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mF_yKVRffI

officially put out "i hate u" as a single now (it was one of the soundcloud tracks)

hope this means album isn't too far away lol

not a new album per se, but there is a ctrl “deluxe” version out today. not sure how new any of the songs are but i certainly haven’t heard them before!

Everything made in 2014-2016 /17… not new lol to be absolutely clear .

— SZA (@sza) June 9, 2022

sounds like they're outtakes from the album's sessions as you'd expect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9-YyROo73M

is she going to just put out one song a year until the album's out in a decade's time

this one's weird - the song's there but it feels like half the backing is missing

that was my take as well

damn i guess "i hate u" and "hit different" were last year

idk if i'm truly anticipating the upcoming benny blanco-ified sza album

"hit different" was 2020 lol what is time

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClmWr_2vBW5/

starting to seem like we're actually getting the album - title is s.o.s.

excited.

so it's out friday and lol that it's 23 tracks but "hit different" didn't make it

SOS
Kill Bill
Seek & Destroy
Low
Love Language
Blind
Used (feat. Don Toliver)
Snooze
Notice Me
Gone Girl
Smoking on My Ex Pack
Ghost in the Machine (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
F2F
Nobody Gets Me
Conceited
Special
Too Late
Far
Shirt
Open Arms (feat. Travis Scott)
I Hate U
Good Days
Forgiveness (feat. Ol' Dirty Bastard)

apparently only 67 minutes though

yeah when I saw that many tracks my guess was that it was going to be structured like janet.

excited.

― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Wednesday, November 30, 2022 9:30 PM

ya'll're crazy btw "shirt" is late entry soty status

such a good album

i haven't really given this a proper listen (just in bits & pieces throughout the day) but unsurprisingly it's less consistent & cohesive than ctrl but still quite good

first listen right now.

lol this is fucking stellar! wow!

some duds in the middle section, but man this is really good.

That sample on the opening title track sure is familiar 😉

Good album so far.

IMMA GET THAT DICK THAT I DESERVE

I appreciate how emo this gets

Guitars!

this is excellent and one of the best albums of the year. easy 4 mics, maybe 4.5.

early criticisms:

-it's too long. when i saw how many tracks there were, i assumed at least a handful would be interludes. nope. that said, the length is a catch 22. keeps the songs brief and allows for a ton of variety. saw some complaints about their inclusion elsewhere, but the familiarity of older favorites like "i hate u" and "good days" makes the album more listenable for me, idk. but yeah: some of those more milquetoast tracks in the middle could've been cut.

-not sure if this is a proper criticism, but her lyrics are all over the place. i know it's what she does, but it does makes the album feel a lot more cluttered than it is. however, just in terms of her voice, she sounds better than ever.

definitely mirrors the times. that whole thing in "shirt" about `going back on my word` after losing yourself (`feelin lost and i like it`) fucks with me. how many times recently have i done something that i knew was kind of fucked up but, like, FUCK IT, right? elsewhere she wants to kill her ex, but also just eat, sleep, and love. seems like a perfectly contradictory microcosm for the whole album. really good, really personal music from a really important voice. love love love.

My spirits did sink a little when U saw the track listing. But they're short things.

*when I

It IS too long, would be my main complaint - but then you think about how long it took for this to come out. She probably recorded so much, and she and the label wanted to pack the track list

In a better economy/marketplace maybe 8-10 of these would’ve been on a pre album mixtape or something

Lol @ this song "F2F" – it's like a mid-2000s pop single (not lyrically, tho)

i can't see this as anything other than an unambiguously great album, prob one of the best albums in years, will rightfully go down as a modern R&B touchstone. when the music is this good i can't really get w/ any argument about it being too long, if anything i wish it was longer. i don't think any song overstays its welcome... maybe the choir part on "good girl" but that song is so good otherwise that i don't really care. there's enough experimentation to keep things interesting but the POV of her songwriting is so clear and consistent that everything feels of a piece. it's just an all around triumph to me. (i also don't like ctrl all that much so maybe i'm crazy.)

naturally my head starts to go to what other records it reminds me of... janet albums come to mind in ethos. putting a rock song as track 13 is so very janet. but i thought a lot about jeremih too... the way in which she flows like a rapper but w/ melody and vocals that firmly root the music in R&B in a way that couldn't be mistaken w/ i.e. future or young thug or melodic rappers. there's a stylistic throughline for me from songs on late nights like "pass dat" and "impatient" to songs on this album like "low", "blind", "notice me", "conceited" etc. there's this kinda stream of consciousness effect to that kinda songwriting that i love.

i actually think the album gets stronger in the middle... "kill bill" and those early ones are cool but a few of them feel a little genre exercise-y to me where as "love language", "blind" etc are where this album finds its groove. i love "snooze" ... it has a certain babyface lightness of touch to it but you'd never know he produced it, she really bends him into the sound of this record. same thing w/ the benny blanco & shellback songs. there's just so much to love here for me.

first thought is that this is pretty excellent. some highlights for me: "low" (kind of like a travis scott song but with vocals that i actually enjoy listening to), "love language" (spacious, languid groove,great lyrics), "blind" (noname-esque stream of consciousness rhyming for two minutes before it flutters off), "notice me" (organ sound is so good! quavering vocals are the perfect accompaniment), and "gone girl" (i actually really like the choir part hah, it's a really grand moment in a record full of small, intimate ones).

i don't really think it's too long, but i might've ended the album at "shirt." tho the final few songs at the end do help ground the album back in an r&b space after going (with mixed results) to pop city for a few songs in the back half.

i don't really think it's too long, but i might've ended the album at "shirt."

i like "open arms" perhaps the only time i've ever enjoyed travis scott's voice. given where they are on the tracklist i'm fairly convinced she had no intention of putting "i hate u" or "good days" on the album and was told that she didn't really have a choice

i really like the travis scott collab and think of it as one of the highlights.

i'm starting to think of this as a double album in the same way that kendrick's mr. morale + the big steppers was "thematically" a double album. in that respect, disc one is basically flawless and the best run of songs on any new album i've heard in many years. i know we say this cliche every year around this time, but i really do feel like this has been a great year for new music — and to have it capped off with an album of this calibre from her is just so damn satisfying.

final word: 4.5 mics

She sounds more like Kehlani than ever.

"far" is punching my brain this morning. this fucking album.