Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Dork Presents
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Dork Presents
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

SZA – SOS

  • Martyn Young
  • January 15, 2023

Label: RCA
Released: 9th December 2022


In the years leading up to what became ‘SOS’, while it was still mired in record label wrangling, SZA reportedly wrote hundreds of songs.

You see, that’s what she does. It’s burned into her being. Making intensely resonant and evocative music fluid across genre boundaries and styles SZA is a truly transcendent, super modern artist. Out of those hundreds of songs 23 are found here and it’s a testament to her skill that what could be a streaming focused data dump turns out to be a beautifully crafted sonic odyssey. 

The album builds on and refines the approach captured on her much loved debut ‘Ctrl’. The wide open expanse of the pure ocean blue imagery of the cover is represented in the sense of freedom and possibility in the music. More ambitious and perfectly pitched, it’s an album rooted in her unique artistry but ready to be discovered by a new generation. Her rise has been a slow burn but it’s clear that she’s now embracing the development from alt R&B to a mainstream pop moment. Crucially though she’s doing it on her own terms in her own distinct voice. There’s messiness on show in terms of laying all her emotions out there but it’s a messiness that makes her music hugely relatable and with a resonant human quality. It’s a messiness that’s urgent, vital and necessary. It’s all these deep emotional  feelings that are captured here and they are  what make this album such an immersive experience. 

‘SOS’ is a journey in every sense of the world as it traverses through poised slow jams like big single ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Seek and Destroy’ before taking an unexpected but extremely satisfying turn into vivid and insistent punk pop on a middle stretch including the soaring ‘F2F’ and the goosebump inducing ‘Nobody Gets Me’. Proper heartstopping stuff. There’s dynamism at work here that very few artists working today possess. If ‘Ctrl’ was a word of mouth cult classic then ‘SOS’ is the sound of someone banging down your door with a megaphone demanding to be heard. A great leap forward from now indisputable pop superstar. 

Martyn Young
5.0 rating
5/5
Total Score
Related Topics
  • Recommended Releases
  • SZA
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Music News

Lewis Capaldi joins The 1975 as their latest special guest, pretends to be Harry Styles, covers ‘Antichrist’

  • January 25, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Rita Ora has dropped her new single, ‘You Only Love Me’

  • January 27, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Taylor Swift has shared a video for ‘Lavender Haze’ – watch

  • January 27, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Music News
    Rita Ora has dropped her new single, ‘You Only Love Me’
    • Music News
    Taylor Swift has shared a video for ‘Lavender Haze’ – watch
    • Music News
    The Dinner Party have changed their name – they’re now The Last Dinner Party, and promise “more news” very soon
    • Music News
    Callum Pitt has announced his debut album, ‘In The Balance’, with the new single, ‘I Feel a God and Devil in This Room’
    • Features
    “Our next record is going to be a bit more eclectic than our previous EPs” – Coach Party headline tonight’s first Dork’s Night Out of 2023

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.