LOS ANGELES — Singer-songwriter
SZA has released her long-awaited deluxe edition of her Grammy-winning 2022
album 'SOS' which is titled 'Lana' after much delay.
The album has been through a long series of false alarms, it
seemed imminent back in February, when she released the song 'Saturn' and bears
artwork similar to the insect-and-forest imagery featured during her tours last
summer, but it’s finally here, reports 'Variety'.
The album features Kendrick Lamar on the track '30 for 30'
(SZA appears on two songs on his recent 'GNX' album) and production from Lil
Yachty and Benny Blanco on one song each.
As per 'Variety', her collaborators on the other songs are
largely 'SOS' producers and writers like Michael Uzowuru, ThankGod4Cody, Rob
Bisel, Carter Lang and others.
She previewed the album with a video for the song 'Drive',
featuring Ben Stiller, on Thursday night.
SZA’s forthcoming stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar presents
a prime opportunity to release new material, she’s been touring behind 'SOS'
since it was released two years ago.
The latest round of teasers began a week ago, on the
two-year anniversary of 'SOS', with a short video trailer that included a snippet
of one of the album’s tracks. The video depicts SZA in a nature setting,
pulling down her baggy camo pants to pee by a creek.
She looks directly into the camera before taking a tissue
out of her pocket to wipe herself up as the words 'Lana' appear across the
screen. She lyrics to the song go, “You know we got a real history/That’s the
reason I can’t choose me/You know that dick been good to me/You make it hard
for me to choose me".
While SZA has been talking about a deluxe edition of 'SOS'
since that album’s release, she explained the album to 'Variety' in August of
last year, as she said, “(‘Lana’) is outtakes (from ‘SOS’) and new stuff, too,
I added a couple of songs. It’s like a whole new project. It’s called ‘Lana’,
my name but, it’s the first tattoo that I ever got, when I was 13. It was 10
bucks a letter and I only had 40, so that became my nickname for no reason.
‘Lana’ is really just the B-side of 'SOS'".
The album seemed imminent in February when she released
'Saturn', but just a few weeks later, SZA became frustrated by fans leaking
songs and posted that she would be “starting ‘Lana’ from scratch” because
“y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe". She continued, “At this point,
y’all can keep the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be starting ‘Lana’ from scratch.
Do not ask me about it again", adding a few minutes later, “I’ll round up
the leaks y’all already got and u can have those. Seems like a fair deal.
ENJOY".
That tweet was deleted shortly afterward. In a subsequent
series of tweets, she said the deluxe edition of 'SOS' will now feature “the
leaks and outtakes” and 'Lana' will be its own album. “Lana deserves more time
and music no one’s ever heard before", she wrote.
However, she seems to have reverted to her previous plan.
