The title of SZA’s long-awaited “SOS Deluxe: Lana” seems designed to manage expectations: Despite her comments earlier this year that the much-delayed project would be a collection of new material, she seems to have reverted to her original plan of making it “outtakes from ‘SOS’ and a couple of new songs,” as she described it to Variety in August of 2023.
Consequently, it’s similar to the deluxe edition of her 2017 full-length debut “Ctrl”: a low-key but satisfying collection outtakes from the album’s sessions and various other tracks that have been floating around the internet for the past couple of years, with a couple of apparently new songs thrown in. It is clearly not the next chapter of her musical evolution, despite her forthcoming tour with Kendrick Lamar and the new imagery (sexy bugs!) that accompanies it. Anyone seeking another culture-shaking song like “Kill Bill” won’t find it here, but there’s plenty to keep fans happy until that next era arrives (which might be a while: Five years passed between the release of “Ctrl” and “SOS”).
So with that context, what treasures are within “Lana”’s 15 tracks? Plenty, although curiously, many of the best songs are toward the end. There are lots of gentler, “Snooze”-ish grooves and softly strummed electric guitars; the lyrics are largely about unrequited or unsatisfying love (although there’s plenty of sex), and, as usual, flashes of revenge and perseverance. The most “woah!” lyric is actually in the chill current single, “Drive”: “I can’t lose my focus, I know if hope is the goal / Then I can’t succumb like these cum-guzzlers at all.”
Other highlights include “Crybaby,” which has a gorgeous, lilting chorus and a soaring soprano verse at the end and easily could have fit on “SOS” (although its similarity to other tracks on the album may be the reason it was left off). “BMF” — a.k.a. the widely leaked song “Boy From South Detroit” — interpolates the melody from Anton Jobim’s “Girl From Ipanema” and includes the classic like “I can’t keep my panties from dropping, he’s so fly”; “Kitchen” is a lovely lilting ballad. The closing track, “Saturn” — released back in February — is probably the most fully realized song here, with a plinking hook and one of her classic mellifluous melodies.
The headline-grabber is the duet with Lamar, “30 for 30,” although it’s actually not one of the strongest tracks here: He turns in some solid verses (has he written any sub-par lyrics in the last decade?), but it actually feels like a late-period Mary J. Blige track; the two songs featuring SZA on Lamar’s latest album “GNX” are much stronger. And despite its promising title and uncharacteristic style, “Scorsese Baby Daddy” doesn’t feel quite fully realized.
Not that there’s anything to complain about — 15 new SZA songs just before the holiday is a welcome addition to her catalog and clears the decks for her next era.
