After waiting five and a half years, SZA finally released her new album SOS on December 9th, 2022. 

For the years in between, her fans got to listen to snippets of her new songs on the successful social media app Tik Tok. In roughly 16 days she earned her first No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 Chart of albums. She has been the first woman since Beyoncé in 2013 to spend three weeks at the No. 1 spot for best album on the Billboard. 

At thirty-three years old, she is a 5x platinum certified artist with dozens of songs that have made it into the top ten and top forty on the Hot 100 Billboard Chart. While most of her music in her new album was her creation and voice, she did have some popular featured artists add some different tone to the music,  including Travis Scott in “Love Language” and Don Toliver in “Used.” 

There is not just one genre of music that SZA focuses on in her new album. While listening to her music we can differentiate what genres she is using such as alternative R&B, soul, hip-hop, rap, and indie. All the songs in her album are all different and not two are the same. To see this difference we can look at her top three songs in her album which is (in rank from 1st-3rd) “Kill Bill,” “Nobody Gets Me,” and “Low.”  

SZA’s No.1 song in her album “Kill Bill” has had 163,327,962 listens on Spotify since it has been released and continues to grow by the hour. With its slow paced music and soul searching vibe, it makes the perfect song to relax to or drive with the windows down in the summer. The song is based on her ex finding a new girlfriend. This drives young listeners to gravitate towards the music if they are experiencing a break up or a toxic relationship/ex. Her No. 2 hit is completely on the opposite spectrum of relationships. 

“Nobody Gets Me” is based on her loving one person and focusing her time on them because in the song she is claimed to find the one person that understands her. With the very slow paced music and great usage of vocals it attracts the attention of listeners that are in relationships while targeting the feelings they have for their significant other. Now, these two songs are very slow paced and built off deep emotions but her No.3 song is all about hip-hop and fast paced music. 

“Low,” is presented to be a song that represents independence and being able to have different personalities in different aspects of life. It attracts the listeners by its upbeat pace while also showing the meaning on how to stand your own ground and be independent. 

One thing that attracted me to her new album was the cover.  Most people see it as a unique simple background, but what people don’t know is that it has some history behind it. 

When we see the cover, it is SZA sitting on a diving board with an ocean background. This album cover was actually a replication of the 1997 photo of Princess Diana sitting on the diving board in Wales. This picture was taken on August 24th, 1997; 7 days before her death. This ties in with the idea of SZA’s meaning on the album name “SOS.” Interpreted as “Save our Souls,” as a meaning of distress or toxic relationships. 

As we know, Princess Diana had toxic relationships with the royals almost like how SZA did with her last relationship. The album cover was made to represent saving the ones that were a part of the tragic toxicity and the music is to express the emotions that occur when faced issues in relationships. 

SZA deserves the No.1 spot on the Billboard 200 Chart. With her use of words, vocals, and genre changes, it really can set the mood for any emotions you are feeling in that moment. At only being thirty-three years old, she is becoming one of the most famous artists in this new decade. I highly recommend listening to the “SOS” album because you are able to enjoy all types of music while only listening to one artist.