Lana (album)

Lana (written fully as SOS Deluxe: Lana) is the reissue of SOS (2022), the second studio album by American singer-songwriter SZA. It was released on December 20, 2024, through Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) and RCA Records. It features guest appearances from Kendrick Lamar and Don Toliver. The album consists of 19 tracks, including the singles "Saturn", "BMF", and "30 for 30".
Soon after the release of her highly acclaimed and commercially successful second studio album, SOS (2022), SZA began teasing a deluxe edition with a postscript at the end of an Instagram post, where she thanked everyone who helped make the album possible. Reportedly composing the tracklist were ten songs intended for the standard edition, per the information SZA told Most Requested Live in January 2023 and Billboard in February. Later in September, she revealed Lana as the deluxe album's title.
Snippets of several songs from the SOS sessions, like the SoundCloud-release "Joni" (2021), had been on the Internet for years prior to the announcement. Despite persistent calls from SZA and her fans to include certain highly awaited outtakes on the album, her record label's president, Punch, disagreed. This led to SZA's decision to put them on Lana instead. Sometime after, she added to the tentative tracklist some songs that were recorded post-SOS. One was the 2023-recorded "Diamond Boy (DTM)".
SZA wrote and recorded over 100 songs for SOS within a timespan of five years. She and her collaborator, album producer Carter Lang, continued to make music after its release specifically for Lana, motivated by sporadic bursts of creativity. By February 4, 2024, the day of the 2024 Grammy Awards, SZA told The Hollywood Reporter that the album was still "shaping itself" as she let her voice follow "whatever the [album]'s frequency [was]", though she refused to disclose more details. She reasoned that doing so would inadvertently change her creative direction for the album.
Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield described Lana as a story about change, in which SZA ventures to break toxic habits and overcome her worst insecurities. During recording sessions for the reissue, SZA felt that her mental well-being had improved since the making of SOS. She told British Vogue that the change was reflected in her songwriting, saying that she had been healing from others' cruelty. Critics who reviewed Lana wrote that it portrays SZA in a transformative state of being, caught in several inner conflicts that hinder her self-improvement.
Many of the reissue's themes and narratives are similar to the ones present in SOS. However, there are multiple deviations. Reviewing the reissue for Vulture, Craig Jenkins wrote that the 19 new songs constituted "a DLC pack of more stories from the same journey to self-love captured in SOS." Pearce disagreed; he argued that Lana "doesn't feel like the same journey" because SZA took a different approach in conceptualizing the reissue. Sheffield wrote that Lana marks the evolution of SZA's songwriting into one that is more direct, ambitious, and aggressive in tone.
The songs on Lana explore themes of seeking closure, ruminating over and forgiving past mistakes, and developing a fulfilling self-concept. The reissue opens with "No More Hiding", in which she declares she wants to be her real self, ugly as it might be. She ends an unhealthy romantic relationship and reaffirms her independence: "I wanna feel sun on my skin / Even if it burns or blinds me / I wanna be purified within."
Love and sexuality are common topics explored across Lana. Several tracks range from lighthearted songs about falling in love, to more ruminative ones that chronicle devastating breakups. Lana's erotic love songs find SZA declaring her romantic and sexual attraction to her ideal men, as well as her desire to pursue them. The subject of the track "Diamond Boy (DTM)" is likened to a shiny diamond; she sings that her devotion to him makes her thoughts race. SZA addresses a "young and fine and dark and handsome" man in "BMF", whose beauty makes her want to remove her underwear. Meanwhile, the more melancholic tracks discuss relationships that have failed due to toxic partners, unrequited love, and bad habits. In their lyrics, SZA explores the vulnerability that arises after experiencing heartbreak. "What Do I Do" discusses an ex-boyfriend who accidentally calls her while he is having sex with another woman. She expresses rage, trying to recover from their break-up, but is unable to keep her composure: "Even though you with that bitch now / I get emotional, it's hard to shut it off." A more poignant breakup song is Lana's penultimate track "Another Life". Nostalgic, SZA wonders if she and her former boyfriend could have been happier together in another life.
Reinforcing Lana's themes of self-improvement, certain tracks discuss SZA's experiences with self-destructive and abusive behavior in romance. Occasionally, she condones or enables these unhealthy habits. SZA's love interest in "Take You Down", described as her "fucking favorite", has influenced the development of her self-destructive tendencies that she compares to licking poison. In "Scorsese Baby Daddy" – named after film director Martin Scorsese – she yearns for an emotionally unstable man and portrays herself as a drama-loving woman. Her object of affection reflects a character archetype found across Scorsese's filmography: dangerous and violent criminals. The narrator in "Kitchen" returns to a relationship with a toxic ex-boyfriend, with whom she cut ties due to his mistreatment and abuse. Although she sings they have a "real history", she keeps questioning herself whether she should leave him again or continue to stay. In contrast, "My Turn" is about getting revenge towards a former partner for the pain they caused the narrator. SZA sings: "My turn, mine to do the hurtin' / Your turn to bear the burdеn / My turn, 'cause I deservе this." Billboard's Mackenzie Cummings-Grady and Pitchfork's Shaad D'Souza wrote that the song's themes were similar to that of the SOS murder ballad "Kill Bill" (2023).
With growth as a major theme in Lana, SZA acknowledges her desire to take accountability and learn from past mistakes. The lyrics of "Crybaby" are about breaking unhealthy patterns and telling oneself to stop blaming the world for all of one's problems. SZA tells herself to stop smoking so she can "age backwards", move her emotional instability "to the backseat", and cut the negative thoughts that are "blocking the positive". In "Joni" and "Love Me 4 Me", she gains validation and self-confidence from her family's support. "Joni" is a homage to SZA's parents in particular; it also discusses being resilient and achieving perfection amid the difficulties of life. She sings: "I been wiped out like 3 times / Beat dat shit call me nine lives." SZA thanks her mother in "Love Me 4 Me" for her unconditional support and compassion, chastising a former lover for not extending the same grace: "You never saw me for me." In other tracks, SZA takes an existential approach to reflecting on self-improvement. The lead single "Saturn" is about wishing to leave Earth for a potentially better life on Saturn, a place where SZA could possibly break free from toxic habits and the pain of heartbreak. She also struggles with existential crises and seeks escapism in "Drive", as she reflects on feeling alienated despite her success.
Lana's aesthetic centers around nature, in particular insects. SZA first teased the reissue's visuals on May 31, 2024, by sharing her full-body cosplay of one via Instagram. At her BST Hyde Park concert held in June, there were several stage props of various insects, such as a statue of a large ant. She showed a video of her in another bug costume as the track "Crybaby" played during the set. The clip was shared again on social media after the show. When SZA appeared on Hot Ones, a YouTube series where guests eat several spicy chicken wings, she wore an insect prosthetic on her face.
The official cover art for Lana shows SZA as an insect-like creature in streetwear, wearing a yellow camouflage jacket and cargo pants. The background is dominated by tall grass. To achieve her look, SZA wore a prosthetic mask and had black body paint applied all over her body. The cover was revealed on December 18, 2024, and shot by Cassidy Meyers.
Six placeholder covers for Lana were posted on social media back on December 10, 2023, five of which show her among various flora and fauna. One shows her in a yellow camping tent; in another, she wears a headdress and bikini fashioned from leaves. In three others, she is handling farm animals. The cover artworks were styled by frequent collaborator Alejandra Hernandez. SZA is portrayed as a "child of nature"; her outfits are particularly designed to evoke a visceral feeling of free-spiritedness. Amel Mukhatar of British Vogue described the style as Bohemian, specifically referencing the nonconformist African American hipsters of the 1940s.
For Lana's title, SZA used her real name, Solána Imani Rowe. Often called "Lana" during childhood, she got a tattoo of her first name at 13 years old, but she could not afford to tattoo all six letters. She had to pay $10 for each, but having only $40, she used only the last four letters of "Solána" for her tattoo.
Lana was released on December 20, 2024, although it was pushed from midnight EST to 3 pm due to final changes to the album's mixing. The pre-save link was shared two days prior. On December 10, in celebration of SOS's second anniversary, SZA posted a trailer on social media accompanied by a track that samples the Isley Brothers' "Voyage to Atlantis". In the video, she is shown walking in the forest where she urinates beside a stream. The trailer closes with an overlaid text of Lana's title appearing above the words "SOS Deluxe". Previously, Lana and the deluxe edition were supposed to be different from each other.
The official announcement of Lana took place in Brooklyn Navy Yard, during a invite-only surprise party to celebrate the success of SOS. During the event, SZA performed four songs intended for the deluxe edition: "Saturn", "PSA", "Diamond Boy (DTM)", and "BMF" (then "Boy from South Detroit"). She told Variety that the release would be unexpected, and she compared herself to Frank Ocean and André 3000 in that she was free to do whatever she wanted. Elaborating on her decision to release another full album worth of material, she said that it had become more than expected and referred to the creative process as fun and did not spend too much time living in her "own head". In June 2024, Time listed Lana as one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
Earlier that year, SZA teased that the reissue would be released before the year ended, saying so at the British Vogue interview and a Twitch livestream by Kai Cenat. Over a year prior, she suggested that the reissue was set for release by mid–December 2023, which ultimately did not happen. Addressing the delay, Punch explained that the label had to postpone the release date due to the leaking of several outtakes from SOS, including ones intended for the deluxe edition. One of the leaked songs was "Joni". Promotional pictures for Lana were posted on social media without permission as well. The leaks prompted SZA's decision to separate them and other outtakes into a different project, a plan she reversed when the official release date neared.
On December 6, SZA shared a picture of a whiteboard of titles of possible tracks from Lana. All songs were obscured, except for "Saturn". Shortly after the British Vogue cover story, she shared a one-minute clip of her on Instagram freestyling.
SZA teased several songs intended for Lana before its release, apart from "Diamond Boy (DTM)" and "BMF". The track used for the reissue's trailer was "Kitchen", which contained the "Voyage to Atlantis" sample. "Crybaby" was shown at two concerts and teased online shortly after the first one ended.
However, "PSA", which was supposed to be on Lana, was scrapped from the final version by Punch. Also excluded was "Joni" and the song "Take You Down", which SZA previously teased on Instagram via a video showing her in a camping tent and with a red bikini.
Hours after the reissue's release, she shared text conversations between the two on social media in which they discussed its exclusion. According to the screenshot, she had asked Punch for permission to release the two outtakes sometime soon. He replied by saying she can "give it to [the fans] for new years or Christmas." Due to the label's holiday break, the tracks were supposed to be released on an updated version of Lana on January 6, 2025. Because SZA's label had yet to clear a sample used for "Joni", the January 6 date was postponed to February 9. The exact time of release was 7 PM Eastern Time, around an hour before SZA's performance with Kendrick Lamar at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
"Joni" was uploaded on SoundCloud on August 22, 2021, and was leaked sometime during recording sessions for Lana. The song was intended for the reissue as well as SOS, but it was scrapped from both projects by SZA's manager, Punch.
Discussions about the lead single started in 2023, and "Diamond Boy (DTM)" was the first choice. However, its release date, and therefore Lana's, was postponed because promotion for SOS was still ongoing with its final single "Snooze". The actual lead single from Lana, "Saturn", was surprise-released on February 22, 2024, days after SZA performed it during a Mastercard advertisement on the 2024 Grammy Awards. The performance was heavily nature-themed, and it featured a backdrop of tree and flower props.
On January 7, 2025, Top Dawg and RCA released "BMF" as a pop radio single and "30 for 30" as a rhythmic crossover single. Lana's sole promotional single, "Drive", was released hours before the album at midnight EST. A music video for the song premiered at the same time; it stars filmmaker Ben Stiller, whose character drives an SUV on an empty road at night.
Pitchfork's Shaad D'Souza, in a review that awarded the album Best New Music, wrote that, "unlike the rambunctious, mixtape-y genre hopping of its predecessor, Lana is aesthetically coherent, filled with warm analog synths and soul-ballad tempos," and said that throughout the album, "SZA sounds totally sure in her ability to command a stadium-sized audience with music that's ambling and sometimes insular." Rolling Stone's wrote that "Lana is SZA in moody late-night R&B electro-ballad mode, her sonic imagination and emotional ferocity as vivid as ever."
In the United States, Lana's first-week streams and downloads helped return SOS to number one on the Billboard 200. Billboard noted that with its album units alone, Lana would have debuted atop the chart if it were released as a separate album, earning 178,000 first-week streaming and tracking-equivalent album units. With the reissue, SOS claimed its 11th non-consecutive week at number one, 22 months after the 10th – the March 4, 2023-dated chart. It therefore broke the record for the longest gap between weeks at number one in the history of the chart.
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