Image on Spotify: The album cover to SZA’s latest album, S.O.S.
By: Sophia Brunetti ’23
SZA’s much anticipated new album ‘S.O.S’ was dropped last month, on December 9th, 2022. This album features 23 tracks, and lots of guest appearances including Travis Scott and Phoebe Bridgers, etc. Her songs are being constantly streamed on Spotify, ranging from 40,000,000 – 150,000,000 million streams. To me, that’s impressive. Most people don’t get that many streams just in the first month – though it was less than a month for her. The album is known not only due to the artist, but also because of the cover art. The cover art resembles a photograph of Princess Diana that had been taken in 1997 sitting on a yacht surrounded by water. SZA seemed to use that photo to inspire her own cover art as the cover art shows her sitting on the edge of a white diving board surrounded by the ocean. “Originally I was supposed to be on top of a shipping barge, but in the references that I pulled for that, I pulled the Diana reference,” SZA said on Hot 97. “Because I just loved how isolated she felt, and that was what I wanted to convey the most.”
SZA wanted to get a certain point across, isolation.
S.O.S has twenty-three tracks. Some of these tracks include songs such as: ‘Good Days,’ ‘Shirt,’ ‘I Hate U,’ ‘Blind,’ and more! Most of these tracks are rooted in R&B, however, a handful of the songs move off into a multitude of other genres. In some songs she’s rapping, in other songs, she may be singing. Most fans, and people, are calling this album SZA’s ‘wildcard.’
I would definitely agree to the fact that this album is a wildcard sort of album. It has a variety of genres, which is something that I like because you never know what you’re going to get when shuffling through the playlist. I’m someone who enjoys all varieties. This album may not be for everybody with the different types of songs, but for me I enjoyed it. I’m someone who has one playlist with tons of songs that each have their own vibe – so having an album with multiple different genres, I enjoyed it.
In this album, I had a few songs that could be classed as my favorite. One of these songs is SOS, a song that seems to talk about being done with others, especially relationships.
SZA had already gone through a handful of interviews answering questions being asked about the genres of the album.
“The sound is a little bit of literally everything,” SZA said in an interview with People Magazine. “It’s a little angry as an overview, but some of it is really beautiful and soft and heartfelt. It’s about heartbreak, it’s about being lost, it’s about being pissed.” She continues later in the interview by saying: “”It’s my first album in five years, so I’m ready to be a different person and step into this new part of my life. Really exemplify who this character is and get to know me better while everyone else gets to know me to live, at the same time.”” She wants people to see who she truly is, which is one of the reasons she pushed this album out.
So, do you agree with the method she went about in this album? Do you agree that having multiple genres definitely seemed to lively up these tracks, or would you have preferred there be one or two genres? Email me your feedback at brunetti27@students.derbyps.org.
The Raider Press 