Courtesy of Top Dawg Entertainment

January 27, 2025

New Year, New SZA: ‘SOS Deluxe: LANA’

Print More

Since SZA’s SOS Deluxe: LANA came out on Dec. 20, and fans have been raving. The album is an expansion of the SOS album, which came out on Dec. 9, 2022, with 15 new songs for listeners to enjoy. Since its drop, SZA’s fan base showed up and showed out, blowing up social media with comments including “Christmas came early,” “finally” and “I’ve been waiting.”

Unlike the original SOS release with features from Travis Scott, Phoebe Bridgers, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Don Toliver, LANA only has one feature: Kendrick Lamar. Lamar recently announced that he will perform at the 2025 Super Bowl with SZA as a guest performer, which has continued to excite SZA’s fanbase. The duo spent much time together on LANA, and their upcoming performance at the Super Bowl seems to make the album more authentic and unique. 

Moving forward to a review of the album — the newly added songs quickly rose in popularity and listeners connected with her songs instantly. The beginning of the album starts with the song “No More Hiding” and sets the tone for the rest of the new songs. “No More Hiding” consists of lyrics based on being more cognitive of every part of herself. Lines like “Cut myself open to see what I’m made of” and “I want to be real me, ugly” set the album’s tone, focusing on self-reflection, self-empowerment and growth as an individual. This contrasts with her original SOS album which starts with the song “F2F” about her ex-boyfriend, further setting the tone for the rest of the album about her dissonance with men. 

In addition to the beginning of her album being different, the tone of the performance track behind her songs was different. In the original SOS, more analog sounds like guitars and harps created a softer tone despite her lyrics reflecting an angrier side. LANA has more synthetic sounds that can be described as “alien-like,” which coincides with her album cover: a picture of SZA with ethereal features and a bug-like facial adaptation. This corresponds well with her lyrics, as many verses delve into messy parts of her psyche that may not be as polished and pretty as she would like. She explores different layers of herself through this singing style, allowing listeners to reflect and connect to pieces of her identity. 

While some argue that adding 15 songs is excessive, the deluxe album earned the number one spot on the Billboard Top 100 with a soaring listenership. The layout of the album resurfaced a lot of fans’ admiration and affection towards the earlier songs such as “Kill Bill,” “Blind” and “Saturn.” Like the original album, which has a few stand-out tracks, LANA has some songs that stick out. The most popular track of the 15 added songs is “30 For 30” with Lamar. The song has a little over 61 million plays on Spotify alone, despite its only being available to listeners for a little over a month. The song grew when it caught attention on TikTok, a phenomenon that grows more and more common with the popularity of the platform. This is not the first song of SZA’s that has gained attention through TikTok, as many of her songs, such as “Kill Bill” and “Saturn” and even monologues of her wisdom always seem to be sprinkled on the For You page. 

Overall, although the 15 songs on SZA’s deluxe release are meant to be an addition to SOS, they indicate a pivot in her career and style of expression that explores more complex feelings within herself. Her focus on introspection has left listeners looking toward their own convoluted emotions. She shows her fanbase her impressive variety of feelings through different avenues of singing and composing. Although SZA has been popular for many years, she continues to inspire her fanbase through her music. 

Isabella Blanco is a sophomore in the School of Industrial Labor Relations. She can be reached at [email protected].