SOS

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## ***SOS*** Album by SZA

* Standard
* Physical
* Webstore

## General Information

### Length

67:51 (Standard)
73:05 (Webstore)

### Producer(s)

Aire Atlantica
Babyface
Beat Butcha
Jeff Bhasker
Rob Bisel
Benny Blanco
BLK
Alessandro Buccellati
Matt Cohn
Darkchild
DJ Dahi
Freaky Rob
Teo Halm
Emile Haynie
Carter Lang
Loshendrix
Will Miller
Nascent
The Rascals
Scum
Shellback
Sir Dylan
Skrrt
ThankGod4Cody
Michael Uzowuru
Jay Versace
Sammy Witte
Still Woozy
Yakob
Yuli

## Singles

1. "Good Days"
Released: December 25, 2020
2. "I Hate U"
Released: December 3, 2021
3. "Shirt"
Released: October 28, 2022
4. "Nobody Gets Me"
Released: January 6, 2023
5. "Kill Bill"
Released: January 10, 2023
6. "Snooze"
Released: April 25, 2023

***SOS*** is the second studio album by American singer SZA. It was released through Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records on December 9, 2022. The album features guest appearances from Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. SZA worked with a variety of record producers and songwriters such as Babyface, Jeff Bhasker, Benny Blanco, Rodney Jerkins, DJ Dahi, Gabriel Hardeman, Ant Clemons and Lizzo. It serves as the follow-up to SZA's previous album, *Ctrl* (2017).

The album was preceded by three singles—"Good Days", "I Hate U", and "Shirt". The first two peaked within the top ten of the *Billboard* Hot 100 alongside "Nobody Gets Me" and "Kill Bill", the fourth and fifth singles respectively. Upon release, *SOS* received widespread critical acclaim for its eclectic sound and SZA's vocal delivery, with several media publications ranking it as one of the best albums of 2022. The album debuted at number one on the *Billboard* 200—SZA's first to do so—and spent ten weeks atop the chart, the longest amount for any female album in the 2020’s decade. It broke the record for the largest streaming week for an R&B album in the US.

## Background

A follow-up album to her debut *Ctrl* was first confirmed in January 2020. On April 3, 2022, she was asked about the album in an interview with *Variety*. She claimed that she had just finished it up in Hawaii and that it was coming soon. She also described the project as her "most unisex album yet". On May 2, 2022, while at the Met Gala, SZA revealed to *Vogue* that the album was slated for release in summer, calling it a "SZA Summer". In October 2022, she announced that the album could be released "any day now".

Frustrated by the pressure and formula of releasing music, SZA opted to take a different strategy. Over the course of two years, SZA sporadically released songs. Each song released was accompanied by a music video. During the second half of the video teasers for her next single would play. At the end of a teaser video title "PSA" released on her 33rd birthday, a message written in morse code can be seen, which after being translated spells out "S.O.S.". In an interview with *Billboard* released on November 16, 2022, SZA confirmed the theories about the album title and release date in December 2022. She further admitted to feeling "stressed" about meeting the release deadline, despite having denied that she had to meet any deadlines a month prior.

The sound of the album was described as "a varied palette", combining "surf rock" and "grunge" elements, alongside "her beloved lo-fi beats".

The singer promoted the album on the December 3, 2022, episode of NBC's *Saturday Night Live* as a musical guest.

On November 30, 2022, SZA posted the album cover to her Instagram.

On December 3, 2022, SZA revealed her album date in her performance on SNL.

On December 14, 2022, the singer confirmed songs from the deluxe edition of the album through a live on StationHead.

On September 9, 2023, SZA announced that the deluxe will be a separate album called ''LANA''.

## Concept

When asked about the name on an interview, SZA revealed that:

## Artwork

On November 30, 2022, SZA posted the album cover on Instagram. She can be seen wearing a St. Louis Blues hockey jersey on the album cover. The cover is a reference to a 1997 photo of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a similar pose aboard a yacht during a trip in Portofino, Italy, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea.

After confirming the fan theory about the relation that the artwork of the album had with the famous Princess Diana photo a week before her death on a yacht, she also revealed on the same interview that she wanted to encapture what feeling lonely looked like. She said "I just loved how isolated she felt and that’s what I wanted to convey the most."

SZA reported on the decision to associate the cover and album with Princess Diana's photo:

## Critical reception

***SOS*** has received critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 91 out of 100, based on reviews from six critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd of *Pitchfork* named the album "Best New Music", stressing how it "solidifies her position as a generational talent, an artist who translates her innermost feelings into indelible moments".  Alexis Petridis of *The Guardian* wrote that the results of the album "are hugely eclectic", finding it "simultaneously impressive and a little exhausting". Petridis found that the songs "shine harder individually than taken in toto, where the sheer profusion causes them to merge into one, blended by a mood of stoned melancholy", with a final product of a " unwieldy" album, where SZA sounds as "a fabulous vocalist, powerful but unshowy, capable of shifting seamlessly into melodic rap".

*NME*'s writer Rhian Daly reported that "under SZA’s command it feels cohesive, organic and like every skip into a new genre is completely justified for each track", pointing out that *SOS* is "a phenomenal record that barely puts a foot wrong and raises the bar even higher than she set it before". Cady Siregar by *Consequence* defined the album "an assured, ambitious, expansive, and genre-defying journey into the very depths of heartbreak and the many shades it comes in". The journalist emphasized that in *Ctrl* there is no predefined musical genre, because "the theme lies in her vocal prowess, the daringness of her vision, and her lyrical frankness".

## Commercial performance

*SOS* debuted at number one on the US *Billboard* 200 chart, with 318,000 equivalent album units sold. The album earned 404.58 million on-demand official streams in its first week, breaking record for the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album, and becoming the second-largest streaming week for an album by a female artist. Within days the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Elsewhere, *SOS* entered within the top 5 of 10 countries: it debuted atop charts in Canada, Netherlands, and New Zealand; at number 2 in Australia, the UK, and Ireland; at number 3 in Norway and Denmark; and number 4 in Sweden and Switzerland.

## Singles

"Good Days"
(December 25, 2020)"I Hate U"
(December 3, 2021)"Shirt"
(October 28, 2022)"Nobody Gets Me"
(January 6, 2023)"Kill Bill"
(January 10, 2023)"Snooze"
(April 25, 2023)
## Track listing

### Deluxe edition

To read about the deluxe edition of the album, read here.

### Notes

* "SOS"
	+ contains an interpolation of "Listen", performed by Beyoncé.
* "Low"
	+ features uncredited additional vocals from Travis Scott.
* "Love Language"
	+ contains an interpolation of “I Don’t Wanna”, performed by Aaliyah.
	+ contains a sample of "Hit Different", performed by SZA featuring Ty Dolla Sign and written by Solána Rowe, Tyrone Griffin, Jr., Rob Bisel, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.
* "Good Days"
	+ contains an interpolation of "In Too Deep", performed by Jacob Collier featuring Kiana Ledé and written by Collier.
* "Forgiveless"
	+ contains a sample of "Hidden Place", written and performed by Björk; and "The Stomp", written and performed by Ol' Dirty Bastard.

## Gallery

Standard ArtworkStandard Artwork with Parental AdvisoryStandard Apple Music ArtworkPhysical ArtworkWebstore Exclusive ArtworkStandard Tracklist #1Standard Tracklist #2SZA - SOS (Official Album Trailer)

## Personnel

**Musicians**

* SZA – lead vocals (all tracks), background vocals (tracks 14, 16, 20)
* Carter Lang – bass (2, 17), choir (2, 12), guitar (2, 13), keyboards (3, 6, 12, 13, 17), drums (12, 13), piano (12)
* Rob Bisel – bass (2, 17), choir (2, 12), guitar (2, 13), keyboards (3, 4, 6, 12, 13, 17), vocals (4), acoustic guitar (6); drums, piano (12); background vocals (14, 16, 20)
* ThankGod4Cody – drums (3, 17), keyboards (3), choir (10)
* Scum – keyboards (3)
* Alessandro Buccellati – accordion, keyboards (4)
* Travis Scott – background vocals (4)
* Aire Atlantica – drums (4)
* Will Miller – keyboards (6)
* Yuli – viola (6)
* Granny – vocals (7, 20)
* Alexandria Arowora – choir (10)
* Anthony Johnson – choir (10)
* Charles Harmon – choir (10)
* Chelsea Miller – choir (10)
* Dylan Neustadter – choir (10)
* Erik Brooks – choir (10)
* Imani Carolyn – choir (10)
* Jewchelle Brown – choir (10)
* Joslynn James – choir (10)
* Roman Collins – choir (10)
* Storm Chapman – choir (10)
* Syd Tagle – choir (10)
* Stix – drums (10)
* Matt Cohn – drums (12)
* Sadhguru – vocals (12, 18)
* Lizzo – background vocals (13)
* Sammy Witte – guitar (17)
* Still Woozy – guitar (17)
* Teo Halm – drums, guitar, keyboards (20)
* Jacob Collier – background vocals (22)

**Technical**

* Dale Becker – mastering (1–20, 22, 23)
* Rob Bisel – mixing (1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 19–21), engineering (all tracks), mastering (21), vocal engineering (3, 17)
* Shawn Everett – mixing (1, 22), mastering (22)
* Jaycen Joshua – mixing (3, 17, 23)
* Derek "206derek" Anderson – mixing, engineering (4, 20)
* Jon Castelli – mixing (4, 7, 11, 15)
* Manny Marroquin – mixing (5, 18)
* Dana Nielsen – mixing (9, 10, 13)
* Serban Ghenea – mixing (14, 16)
* Carson Graham – engineering (1, 5, 6, 8, 17, 18)
* Josh Deguzman – engineering (4, 7, 11, 15)
* Hector Castro – engineering (9, 15, 19, 21)
* Dylan Neustadter – engineering (10, 11, 16)
* Bryce Bordone – engineering (14)
* Derek Keota – engineering (19, 23)
* Micah Petit – engineering (19, 23)
* Will Maclellan – vocal engineering (12)
* Katie Harvey – engineering assistance (1–20, 22, 23)
* Noah McCorkle – engineering assistance (1–20, 22, 23)
* Robert N. Johnson – engineering assistance (2, 4–6, 9, 12–15, 17–21)
* Syd Tagle – engineering assistance (2, 8, 10–12, 15–17)
* Trey Pearce – engineering assistance (2, 9, 17)
* Hayden Duncan – engineering assistance (3, 10, 12, 15, 16)
* DJ Riggins – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
* Jacob Richards – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
* Mike Seaberg – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
* Rachel Blum – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
* Ben Sedano – engineering assistance (5, 7, 19)
* Anthony Vilchis – engineering assistance (5, 18)
* Trey Station – engineering assistance (5, 18)
* Zach Pereyra – engineering assistance (5, 18)
* Jon Sher – engineering assistance (5)
* Kaushlesh Purohit – engineering assistance (7)
* Noah Hashimoto – engineering assistance (7, 13)
* Jonathan Lopez – engineering assistance (8, 14)
* Patrick Gardner – engineering assistance (14)
* Austin Christy – engineering assistance (15)
* Jeremy Dilli – engineering assistance (16, 18)
* Shelby Epstine – engineering assistance (20)

## Trivia

* It is SZA's album with most songs on it's standard edition (23).
* The album cover was inspired by a picture of Princess Diana that was taken a week before her death.
* This is SZA's first album where all of the songs aren't explicit.
* A deluxe edition of the album is expected to be released soon.
* The original cover was set to be SZA on a shipping barge, but the idea was later changed due to several difficulties while making it.

## References

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ *SZA is finally ready to release that album (Yes, really!) - Billboard Interview*
3. ↑ Renshaw, David (January 3, 2020). "SZA confirms plans for 2020 album release". *The Fader*. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
4. ↑ *SZA - PSA (Official Teaser) @ 1:37*
5. ↑ *SZA via Instagram - November 30, 2022*
6. ↑ *sza.of.the.sun via Instagram Reels.* December 14, 2022.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "SZA On New Album 'SOS', Being Pissed & What Makes Her Not Want to Put Out Music Again". *HOT 97*. December 7, 2022.
8. ↑ NHL.com [@NHLdotcom] (December 1, 2022). "SZA rocks @StLouisBlues jersey on new album cover. t.co/iWY6oVUois" (Tweet). Retrieved December 2, 2022 – via Twitter.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Gallagher, Alex (December 9, 2022). "How Princess Diana inspired SZA's 'SOS' album artwork". *NME*. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 *Princess Diana - August 24, 1997*
11. ↑ Cowen, Trace William (December 8, 2022). "SZA on How Princess Diana Photo Inspired Cover Art for New Album 'SOS'". *Complex*. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
12. ↑ "S.O.S. by SZA Reviews and Tracks". *Metacritic*. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
13. ↑ Escobedo Shepherd, Julianne (December 9, 2022). "SZA SOS Album Review | Pitchfork". *Pitchfork*. Retrieved December 9, 2022.