Earlier this year, during a sit-down interview with Kendrick Lamar for Harper's BAZAAR, Solána Imani Rowe confessed a roadblock that impacts many vulnerable artistic minds like hers. "When I’m in the studio, it hurts too much sometimes. Maybe that’s why I tap in and pretend to be other people." For anyone familiar with SZA's catalog, this may sound like complete blasphemy. She's always been very forthright about her feelings, even the ones that she acknowledges – whether intentionally or not – as hazy, brash, primal, or lost. But a closer look at projects like SOS reveal slow but sure inspections of these insecurities and this difficult relationship between artistry, emotional honesty, accountability, and being one of music's biggest superstars right now. As such, it's no surprise that LANA, the deluxe expansion of this beloved behemoth of a 2022 album, addresses this even more directly through its leftovers.
For whatever reason, these 15 tracks didn't make the original SOS album, but songs like "BMF" are cuts that SZA really believed in and wanted to share with fans. Whether due to their songwriting, lyrical topics, production choices, or just a preference for other records, these vault picks spent years locked away before revealing themselves last week as catchy, bubbly, low-key, and often whimsical jams. Therefore, they represent that bottled-up balance in her mind. LANA manages to sum up everything that fans loved about SOS not just through their creation in that mindset, but through the St. Louis native's consistently sharp hooks, malleable verse melodies, and vocal versatility. Of course, more introspective and moody moments appear to balance out her highs, and in fact, they take center stage as soon as you press play.
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LANA's Lyrical Highs & Lows
LANA opens with "No More Hiding," a wondrous but chilly plea for "the real" with evocative acoustic guitar, icy synthesizers, and soothing rainfall. Furthermore, this project seeks genuine emotional connection that doesn't lead to betrayal. Thanks to conflicted slow-burners like "What Do I Do" and the frustrating need for peace and quiet on "Chill Baby," SZA continues her trademark breakdowns of giving too much love to something you can't trust, feeling like your muse isn't reciprocating that dedication, learning to establish your desired boundaries, and putting your own well-being first. While some moments like the self-affirming "My Turn" or the firm daydreaming of "Another Life" reach more conclusive revelations, most of LANA sonically support this vague and cloudy emotional state. Most importantly, the 35-year-old communicates that struggle beyond words, and has even more on the way.
Singles like "Saturn" proved that this SOS deluxe edition would also boast some sticky and addictive ear candy that lives up to the original's dominant run in 2023. Across this push-and-pull in the emotional pallet, SZA is sultrily provocative on "Diamond Boy (DTM)" in a way that makes her urges and vices on LANA infectiously relatable ("You make my thoughts stop / You make being me less hard"). For as overwhelming as her mind becomes on the acoustic boiling point "Drive," she masters some engaging flow switches and different melodic approaches that make a bare instrumental truly come alive. The TDE superstar doesn't compromise on the gut-punches, though, thanks to lines like "I keep pretеnding everyone's as good as mе / S**t's so weird I cannot speak." Overall, even the more fun moments on here, like the Kendrick Lamar-assisted "30 For 30," embrace distraughtly personal corners.
SOS' Sonic Dreaminess Is Back
The same is true of LANA's production, which ranges from glimmering bliss and lust to more raw and cold valleys. However, it's also where this SOS deluxe edition falters in its potential. There are certainly more highlights than lowlights, especially since SZA's ever-pleasant, passionate, and ethereally calming vocal performances fill in their occasional gaps very well. Still, "Scorsese Baby Daddy" depends on her melodies to elevate a generic rock beat. Fortunately, this more basic genre excursion is minimal when compared to more solid tones of acoustic balladry, tender soul, and woozy R&B throughout. But the generally washed-out, heavily atmospheric, and relatively simple treatments when it comes to the production could've benefitted from more clear or bright tones. For example, "Love Me For Me" is a great tune that could've been that much better if some of its outro embellishments were more present in the mix.
Nevertheless, perhaps you could say the same about SOS, which brings things to a key question. As a deluxe version, LANA does not carry the same pressures as other albums to evolve sounds or present something new... Even if it is a whopping 15 tracks that make it a full-length experience of its own. Instead, it delivers on its main promise of even more amazing SZA songs. "Kitchen" has one of her most unique chorus performances with the most gorgeously sweet instrumental on here, "Crybaby" is among her best and most dynamic vocal performances and emotional narratives, and the "Get Behind Me" interlude switches things up with warm percussion and the most triumphant moment on this deluxe version that fully escapes its melancholy. Yet if you didn't like the original, we can't say that LANA will convince you.
What's Next For SZA?
Regardless of that, SZA has a lot to be proud of with this release, especially given the long wait in between LANA and SOS and the agonizing years between that and Ctrl. It takes her established and still-impressive artistry in a more formless, abstract, and ephemeral sonic direction that, if tinkered with here and there, could yield her most forward-thinking material. We hope that whatever comes next, even if it hurts, leads Solána to continually find who she really is and, perhaps through a more propulsive and fresh musical evolution, treasure the search for something worth saving.