(S)ongs (O)n (S)orrow: SZA, Cool Factor, and Breakup Albums

Can I like pop and still be cool? That is the question I ask myself when I enjoy a pop song. I write about music and I have been writing about music for a few years now. I write about rock and indie rock. I’m a tastemaker. I’m very cool. I’m cool when I say one of my favorite albums is Girls by Girls, or when I say I have interviewed Kim Gordon. At those times, I am cool. 

I don’t tell people about the music that doesn’t make me cool or a music snob. I don’t really care if they know, but it sure won't be from me. I have tried to keep up a reputation as a smart indie girl who knows music. I worry that if I expose myself as someone who likes more than that– specifically mainstream music– I won’t be respected anymore. Not to mention, how could I have anything to add to the conversation that hasn’t been said already? Especially with  mainstream media, many have analyzed these albums already. I worry that people will stop trusting my judgment. I am not an expert, but I know what I’m talking about (mostly). But that is the real issue with writing about music right? How can I ever know if my opinion– my nineteen year old girl opinion– even matters?

Regardless, in writing this review I have decided to be honest and write about an album I love. Even if it is “basic” and mainstream, it is important to me. Perhaps it is because it came out at just the right time, or maybe it is actually good. I am not an objective listener, nor am I claiming to be. I don’t believe that anyone is, but I have a lot of say about this album. The album is SOS by SZA. 

While SZA was about to skyrocket into even more fame, I was a seventeen year-old heartbroken girl. I had gone through the first breakup of my life earlier that year. It was THAT breakup. It was first love to first heartache. I had to see my ex at school every day and it killed me. I kind of wanted to kill him too. I was filled with rage, but also longing. I was trying to move on with another person, but admittedly, it was mostly a rebound. Just as I was beginning to move forward a little more, I found out that my ex had a new girlfriend. I acted calm about it because I was supposedly dating too. I wanted to remain cool, but I secretly wanted to cry. The sadness soon turned into more rage. 

SOS came out December 9th, 2022. I was with two friends on the way to a music video shoot. My friend Dahlia casually said that she has been listening to the new SZA album nonstop. I told her I didn’t even know about it, as SZA fell off my radar since she hadn’t released music in five years. I liked ctrl but I didn’t get into it too much when it first came out. Something came over me and I suddenly HAD to listen to her new release. 

First, we heard the song “SOS.” The morse code tickled my ears as it spelled out the letters. The message of the album was unclear at this point. The album cover popped up on the screen in my car. She sits on what looks like a diving board in the middle of a body of water. It is a lonely picture, but I could already tell a bit of an overarching theme. At that point, there were already a few nautical references I could take away without even knowing what the album’s goal was. Her angry lyrics are evened out by gospel samples. Her producer used “Until I Found the Lord (My Soul Couldn’t Rest)” by Gabriel Hardeman Delegation (Guy, Vulture) to give her anger a soulful side. The first song on the album is striking in its confusion. I had no idea what I was getting into. 

I’m not sure what most people feel after a heartache. Moreso, I didn’t know what people would listen to after a heartbreak. I feel like most people cry and the girls I know would cry while listening to Mitski or Phoebe Bridgers. They would just want to be sad.  As I said before, I had an overwhelming amount of anger. I did not want to be sad– at least not at that point. I just wanted to hurt him the way he had hurt me. 

My friend and I have had long conversations about our love for what we call “female rage” music. That was what got me through at that time. It is generally what you’d think of: Bikini Kill, some Courtney Barnett, Fiona Apple as well. “Kill Bill” scratched an itch for me that I didn’t know I was missing. Solana Imani Rowe, A.K.A. SZA, uses anger and sexuality to amplify the classic breakup album. I am not saying that she was reinventing the wheel or anything of that sort, but she was honest about the high and lows of heartache. “Kill Bill” is obviously a reference to the film of the same name. It is about seeing your ex with someone else, and seeing them move on while you are just left behind. “I Hate You” does the same thing. It is solely about her being upset. It carries the same weight of the other songs, even if it is just her basically saying “fuck you!” We have heard songs like this before, what makes this different is that she does not shy away from expressing her honest feelings about wanting to kill him. She doesn’t try to sit back and look pretty. She is very vulnerable and is entrusting her audience with her secret plans. 

Additionally, I will also not argue that this is an album that is the first of its kind. It reminds me of Fiona Apple’s Tidal in how Apple also whispers her secrets of “feeling like a criminal” into our ears. SZA’s SOS explores the in-between of depression and anger. Both women are not afraid to say what their dark desires are. I feel that that is a powerful message to women who are struggling with similar issues. They are sending the message that those women do not have to be ashamed for being angry. Being hurt has many different aspects. 

SZA continues to add to that idea by empowering herself sexually throughout the album. She admits to having needs that we all have. In “Low” she writes about her rebound, and how she keeps her sex life and social life separate, making it very clear that she didn’t really value that person. In the same way, “F2F” continues that storyline, as it stands for “Fuck 2 Forget.” On the flip side, “Love Language” is about any form of emotional or physical intimacy with a person, and how much she really craves the deep connection. Hearing these songs together paint a fuller picture of an imperfect person who is taking care of her needs as she sees fit, even if they are unhealthy tactics. It once again shows the audience that all of this is normal, and trying to move on too fast and then feeling hurt all over again isn’t unusual, nor is it something that we should feel ashamed of. I think that SZA owning her sexuality is a powerful part of the album and pushes the subgenre of “female rage” forward. First, women were scared to be open about their anger, but many women decided to fight against that. Now, women are continuing to say that they are angry AND that they are also sexually active! SZA is a part of that.

From a production standpoint, the tracks were created very thoughtfully. Producer Rodney Jerkins as well as SZA herself did a great job of adding relevant and interesting samples as well as features. She samples Bjork’s “Hidden Place,”(Guy, Vulture) as well as audio from old video footage of Ol’ Dirty Bastard in her song “Forgiveless.” My favorite sample, though, would have to be her sample of herself in “Love Language.” She uses the pre chorus from her 2020 single with The Neptunes and Ty Dolla $ign called “Hit Different” as the slowed down bridge of “Love Language.” I personally love when artists recycle their own stuff and self-reference in their own music. 

When it comes to features, however, SZA masterfully produced songs that fit not just her own pop-R&B style, but also the styles of her featured artists. This was easier in the past when all of her features were male rappers who could just hop on the track and could be used as a kind of palette cleanser. On SOS, she didn’t overdo the features by any means, but she managed to use them where it felt needed. In “Low,” she used Travis Scott’s ad libs, which accentuate the more upbeat style of the song. In “Ghost In The Machine,” she puts Phoebe Bridgers, master of sad girl music, on the song. While SZA raps and sings in her own style, it does not compromise Bridger’s verse where she sings exactly like I would expect her to sing. In that part of the song, it sounds like a Phoebe Bridgers song, but the rest sounds like SZA. Also in kind of the opposite way, in “Used” with Don Toliver, she does a great job of making him fit the sad-angry breakup album idea. To me, Toliver is just kind of party music. It can be fun, but I generally don’t find it interesting in the same way. On SOS, he transforms a bit, and it feels like he drops the idea of being a mainstream uninteresting rapper and leans into singing with her and expressing a deeper emotion than just a constant craving for lean. 

Through all of this anger and all the hate I had in my heart, at the end of the day, I am just a girl! I did want to cry. Yet again, SOS has a wide spectrum of feelings. She starts with anger, goes into sadness, and ends with a new look into the future. Over the years, I have cried alone and with friends to “Special” or “Nobody Gets Me.” We scream the words in the car, or late at night in our rooms. At this point, I am long over my first heartache, but I still cry to these songs just because it feels good to. 

Then the album ends with “Good Days” and “Forgiveless.” “Good Days” is just about seeing brighter days ahead. It feels like it should end here, but it doesn’t. I think it is funny that it ends with “Forgiveless,” because it is still an angrier song on first listen, but really it’s just her saying that she can forgive, but she won’t forget. It ties up the album well, because it is realistic. When you have been hurt, you learn to take care of yourself more, even if all you want to do is envision the “Good Days” ahead. 

So I ask, “Can I like pop and still be cool?” I guess the real question is, “will I still think I am cool?” The other being, “why should I even care what other people think?” I have laid out what makes SOS an important album to me. It is just my opinion. It is just my nineteen year-old girl's opinion about a breakup album. Why should anyone care really? I would say because this is an album that is written for people like me. It isn’t written for middle aged men. If they like it that’s great too! I feel like I am the prime audience for this album. As the prime audience, I love it. So what that a bunch of other teenage girls (and honestly millions of other people) like her? SOS is for us. An album can be for anyone, and I tend to be very stuck up about music and what is “cool” and “innovative” or “intellectual.” That is always my opinion, but I tend to stick to indie artists or the canon that indie artists find “cool.” I tend to agree with that. However, as someone who writes about music, I also have learned to develop my own nuanced opinion that shies away from the cool canon of how I was raised. I think that makes me a better writer in general. I guess I’ve answered my own question. 

Sources:

Guy, Zoe. “Everything SZA References on Sos (Including Herself).” Vulture, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2022, www.vulture.com/2022/12/sza-sos-lyrics-samples-movie-references.html.