SOS

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“	It's probably my most unisex project yet, if that makes sense. It's definitely for everybody in a different way.	”
– SZA on her sophomore studio album

SOS Album by SZA
General Information
Release Date	December 9, 2022
Recorded	2017 - 2022
Genre	R&B • Alternative • Hip-Hop
Length	67:51 (Standard) 73:05 (Webstore)
Label	Top Dawg • RCA
Producer(s)	Aire Atlantica Babyface Beat Butcha Jeff Bhasker Rob Bisel Benny Blanco BLK Alessandro Buccellati Matt Cohn Darkchild DJ Dahi Freaky Rob Teo Halm Emile Haynie Carter Lang Loshendrix Will Miller Nascent The Rascals Scum Shellback Sir Dylan Skrrt ThankGod4Cody Michael Uzowuru Jay Versace Sammy Witte Still Woozy Yakob Yuli
SZA’s chronology
Previous	Ctrl
Current	SOS
Next	LANA
Singles
1. "Good Days" Released: December 25, 2020 2. "I Hate U" Released: December 3, 2021 3. "Shirt" Released: October 28, 2022 4. "Nobody Gets Me" Released: January 6, 2023 5. "Kill Bill" Released: January 10, 2023 6. "Snooze" Released: April 25, 2023

SOS is the second studio album by American singer SZA. It was released through Top Dawg Entertainment and RCA Records on December 9, 2022. The album features guest appearances from Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. SZA worked with a variety of record producers and songwriters such as Babyface, Jeff Bhasker, Benny Blanco, Rodney Jerkins, DJ Dahi, Gabriel Hardeman, Ant Clemons and Lizzo. It serves as the follow-up to SZA's previous album, Ctrl (2017).

The album was preceded by three singles—"Good Days", "I Hate U", and "Shirt". The first two peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 alongside "Nobody Gets Me" and "Kill Bill", the fourth and fifth singles respectively. Upon release, SOS received widespread critical acclaim for its eclectic sound and SZA's vocal delivery, with several media publications ranking it as one of the best albums of 2022. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200—SZA's first to do so—and spent ten weeks atop the chart, the longest amount for any female album in the 2020’s decade. It broke the record for the largest streaming week for an R&B album in the US.

Background

A follow-up album to her debut Ctrl was first confirmed in January 2020. On April 3, 2022, she was asked about the album in an interview with Variety. She claimed that she had just finished it up in Hawaii and that it was coming soon. She also described the project as her "most unisex album yet". On May 2, 2022, while at the Met Gala, SZA revealed to Vogue that the album was slated for release in summer, calling it a "SZA Summer". In October 2022, she announced that the album could be released "any day now".

Frustrated by the pressure and formula of releasing music, SZA opted to take a different strategy. Over the course of two years, SZA sporadically released songs. Each song released was accompanied by a music video. During the second half of the video teasers for her next single would play. At the end of a teaser video title "PSA" released on her 33rd birthday, a message written in morse code can be seen, which after being translated spells out "S.O.S.". In an interview with Billboard released on November 16, 2022, SZA confirmed the theories about the album title and release date in December 2022. She further admitted to feeling "stressed" about meeting the release deadline, despite having denied that she had to meet any deadlines a month prior.

The sound of the album was described as "a varied palette", combining "surf rock" and "grunge" elements, alongside "her beloved lo-fi beats".

The singer promoted the album on the December 3, 2022, episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live as a musical guest.

On November 30, 2022, SZA posted the album cover to her Instagram.

On December 3, 2022, SZA revealed her album date in her performance on SNL.

On December 14, 2022, the singer confirmed songs from the deluxe edition of the album through a live on StationHead.

On September 9, 2023, SZA announced that the deluxe will be a separate album called ''LANA''.

Concept

When asked about the name on an interview, SZA revealed that:

“	Well I guess, like, of course it’s like “Save Our Souls” and then like “Save Our Ship,” but it’s also, you know, SZA stands in the Supreme Alphabet – the S is like self-savior. And then poeple call me Sos. My friends call me Sos for short. And it’s like Solana but like shorter and cuter, I guess. But yeah, so, we were like ‘We don’t know what nickname we’re gonna have to make for you after this,’ cause I thought eveyone’s gonna call me Sos and I’m gonna be so confused. I can’t differentiate who really knows me and what’s actually happening.	”
– via HOT 97

Artwork

Princess Diana on August 24, 1997

On November 30, 2022, SZA posted the album cover on Instagram. She can be seen wearing a St. Louis Blues hockey jersey on the album cover. The cover is a reference to a 1997 photo of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a similar pose aboard a yacht during a trip in Portofino, Italy, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea.

After confirming the fan theory about the relation that the artwork of the album had with the famous Princess Diana photo a week before her death on a yacht, she also revealed on the same interview that she wanted to encapture what feeling lonely looked like. She said "I just loved how isolated she felt and that’s what I wanted to convey the most."

SZA reported on the decision to associate the cover and album with Princess Diana's photo:

“	Originally I was supposed to be on top of, like, a shipping barge. But in the references that I pulled for that, I pulled the Diana reference because I just loved how isolated she felt and that was what I wanted to convey the most. And then at the last minute, we, like, didn’t get clearance to get the shipping barges that we wanted and we were like, ‘We’re gonna build the diving board instead. We’re still gonna try it.’ We didn’t nix the boat altogether and we tried it and it turned out cool and I wasn’t sure it was going to be really cool until, like, right now.	”
– via Complex

Critical reception

SOS has received critical acclaim upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from mainstream critics, the album received a score of 91 out of 100, based on reviews from six critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd of Pitchfork named the album "Best New Music", stressing how it "solidifies her position as a generational talent, an artist who translates her innermost feelings into indelible moments". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that the results of the album "are hugely eclectic", finding it "simultaneously impressive and a little exhausting". Petridis found that the songs "shine harder individually than taken in toto, where the sheer profusion causes them to merge into one, blended by a mood of stoned melancholy", with a final product of a " unwieldy" album, where SZA sounds as "a fabulous vocalist, powerful but unshowy, capable of shifting seamlessly into melodic rap".

NME's writer Rhian Daly reported that "under SZA’s command it feels cohesive, organic and like every skip into a new genre is completely justified for each track", pointing out that SOS is "a phenomenal record that barely puts a foot wrong and raises the bar even higher than she set it before". Cady Siregar by Consequence defined the album "an assured, ambitious, expansive, and genre-defying journey into the very depths of heartbreak and the many shades it comes in". The journalist emphasized that in Ctrl there is no predefined musical genre, because "the theme lies in her vocal prowess, the daringness of her vision, and her lyrical frankness".

Commercial performance

SOS debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, with 318,000 equivalent album units sold. The album earned 404.58 million on-demand official streams in its first week, breaking record for the biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album, and becoming the second-largest streaming week for an album by a female artist. Within days the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Elsewhere, SOS entered within the top 5 of 10 countries: it debuted atop charts in Canada, Netherlands, and New Zealand; at number 2 in Australia, the UK, and Ireland; at number 3 in Norway and Denmark; and number 4 in Sweden and Switzerland.

Tour

See SOS Tour

Singles

"Good Days"
(December 25, 2020)

"I Hate U"
(December 3, 2021)

"Shirt"
(October 28, 2022)

"Nobody Gets Me"
(January 6, 2023)

"Kill Bill"
(January 10, 2023)

"Snooze"
(April 25, 2023)

Track listing

Standard edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"SOS"	Solana Rowe, Jahlil Gunter, Rob Bisel, Gabriel Samuel Hardeman	Jay Versace	1:57
2.	"Kill Bill"	Rowe, Bisel, Carter Lang	Lang, Bisel	2:33
3.	"Seek & Destroy"	Rowe, Bisel, Cody Fayne, Tyran Donaldson, Lang	Bisel, Lang, Tyran Donaldson Scum, ThankGod4Cody	3:23
4.	"Low"	Rowe, Bisel, Alessandro Buccellati, Joseph Pincus, Jocelyn Donald	Bisel, Buccellati, Aire Atlantica	3:01
5.	"Love Language"	Rowe, Fayne, Lang, Jakob Rabitsch, Anthony Clemons, Jr., Bisel, Pharrell Williams, Tyrone Griffin, Chad Hugo, Jazzaé De Waal	Yakob, Lang, ThankGod4Cody, Bisel	3:03
6.	"Blind"	Rowe, Bisel, Lang, Margaux Alexis Rosalena Whitney, Will Miller	Bisel, Lang, Yuli, Miller	2:30
7.	"Used (featuring Don Toliver)"	Rowe, Dacoury Natche, Ely Rise, Danny McKinnon, John Key, Caleb Toliver, John Hill	Dahi, McKinnon, Rise, Key, Bisel	2:26
8.	"Snooze"	Rowe, Kenneth Edmonds, Khristopher Riddick-Tynes, Leon Thomas III, Blair Ferguson	Babyface, The Rascals, BLK Beats	3:21
9.	"Notice Me"	Rowe, Teo Halm, Michael Uzowuru, Bisel, Lang, Fayne	Halm, Uzowuru, Bisel, Lang, ThankGod4Cody	2:40
10.	"Gone Girl"	Rowe, Jeff Bhasker, Emile Haynie, Bisel, Lang, Fayne	Bhasker, Haynie, Bisel, Lang, ThankGod4Cody	4:04
11.	"Smoking On My Ex Pack"	Rowe, Clarence Scarborough, Raina Taylor, Gunter	Jay Versace	1:23
12.	"Ghost In The Machine (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)"	Rowe, Phoebe Bridgers, Bisel, Lang, Matt Cohn, Marshall Vore	Bisel, Lang, Cohn, Ethan Gruska, Tony Berg	3:38
13.	"F2F"	Rowe, Melissa Jefferson, Bisel, Lang	Bisel, Lang	3:05
14.	"Nobody Gets Me"	Rowe, Benjamin Levin, Bisel, Lang	Benny Blanco, Bisel, Lang	3:00
15.	"Conceited"	Rowe, Fayne, Bisel	ThankGod4Cody	2:31
16.	"Special"	Rowe, Levin, Bisel, Blake Slatkin, Johan Schuster, Omer Fedi	Benny Blanco, Slatkin, Fedi, Shellback	2:38
17.	"Too Late"	Rowe, Sven Gamsky, Samuel Witte, Bisel, Lang, Fayne	Still Woozy, Witte, Bisel, Lang, ThankGod4Cody	2:44
18.	"Far"	Rowe, Bisel, Lang, Carlos Muñoz, Eliot Dubock, Donaldson	Bisel, Lang, Los Hendrix, Beat Butcha, Scum	3:00
19.	"Shirt"	Rowe, Rodney Jerkins, Robert Gueringer	Darkchild, Freaky Rob	3:01
20.	"Open Arms (featuring Travis Scott)"	Rowe, Jacques Webster II, Halm, Uzowuru, Bisel, Douglas Ford	Halm, Uzowuru, Bisel	3:59
21.	"I Hate U"	Rowe, Bisel, Lang, Fayne, Dylan Patrice	Bisel, Lang, ThankGod4Cody, Sir Dylan	2:54
22.	"Good Days"	Rowe, Jacob Collier, Lang, Muñoz, Christopher Ruelas	Lang, Los Hendrix, Nascent, Bisel	4:39
23.	"Forgiveless (featuring Ol' Dirty Bastard)"	Rowe, Russel Jones, Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Guy Sigsworth, Mark Bell, Jerkins	Darkchild	2:21
Total length:				67:51

Webstore and japanese edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
24.	"PSA"	Rowe, Lang, Miller	Lang, Miller	1:40
25.	"Open Arms (Solo Version)"	Rowe, Halm, Uzowuru, Bisel, Ford	Halm, Uzowuru, Bisel	3:35
Total length:				73:05

Notes

• "SOS"
  • contains an interpolation of "Listen", performed by Beyoncé.
• "Low"
  • features uncredited additional vocals from Travis Scott.
• "Love Language"
  • contains an interpolation of “I Don’t Wanna”, performed by Aaliyah.
  • contains a sample of "Hit Different", performed by SZA featuring Ty Dolla Sign and written by Solána Rowe, Tyrone Griffin, Jr., Rob Bisel, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.
• "Good Days"
  • contains an interpolation of "In Too Deep", performed by Jacob Collier featuring Kiana Ledé and written by Collier.
• "Forgiveless"
  • contains a sample of "Hidden Place", written and performed by Björk; and "The Stomp", written and performed by Ol' Dirty Bastard.

Gallery

Standard Artwork

Standard Artwork with Parental Advisory

Standard Apple Music Artwork

Physical Artwork

Webstore Exclusive Artwork

Standard Tracklist #1

Standard Tracklist #2

SZA - SOS (Official Album Trailer)

Photoshoot

Edited

LQ

Photoshoot BTS

Release Party

Personnel

Musicians

• SZA – lead vocals (all tracks), background vocals (tracks 14, 16, 20)
• Carter Lang – bass (2, 17), choir (2, 12), guitar (2, 13), keyboards (3, 6, 12, 13, 17), drums (12, 13), piano (12)
• Rob Bisel – bass (2, 17), choir (2, 12), guitar (2, 13), keyboards (3, 4, 6, 12, 13, 17), vocals (4), acoustic guitar (6); drums, piano (12); background vocals (14, 16, 20)
• ThankGod4Cody – drums (3, 17), keyboards (3), choir (10)
• Scum – keyboards (3)
• Alessandro Buccellati – accordion, keyboards (4)
• Travis Scott – background vocals (4)
• Aire Atlantica – drums (4)
• Will Miller – keyboards (6)
• Yuli – viola (6)
• Granny – vocals (7, 20)
• Alexandria Arowora – choir (10)
• Anthony Johnson – choir (10)
• Charles Harmon – choir (10)
• Chelsea Miller – choir (10)
• Dylan Neustadter – choir (10)
• Erik Brooks – choir (10)
• Imani Carolyn – choir (10)
• Jewchelle Brown – choir (10)
• Joslynn James – choir (10)
• Roman Collins – choir (10)
• Storm Chapman – choir (10)
• Syd Tagle – choir (10)
• Stix – drums (10)
• Matt Cohn – drums (12)
• Sadhguru – vocals (12, 18)
• Lizzo – background vocals (13)
• Sammy Witte – guitar (17)
• Still Woozy – guitar (17)
• Teo Halm – drums, guitar, keyboards (20)
• Jacob Collier – background vocals (22)

Technical

• Dale Becker – mastering (1–20, 22, 23)
• Rob Bisel – mixing (1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 19–21), engineering (all tracks), mastering (21), vocal engineering (3, 17)
• Shawn Everett – mixing (1, 22), mastering (22)
• Jaycen Joshua – mixing (3, 17, 23)
• Derek "206derek" Anderson – mixing, engineering (4, 20)
• Jon Castelli – mixing (4, 7, 11, 15)
• Manny Marroquin – mixing (5, 18)
• Dana Nielsen – mixing (9, 10, 13)
• Serban Ghenea – mixing (14, 16)
• Carson Graham – engineering (1, 5, 6, 8, 17, 18)
• Josh Deguzman – engineering (4, 7, 11, 15)
• Hector Castro – engineering (9, 15, 19, 21)
• Dylan Neustadter – engineering (10, 11, 16)
• Bryce Bordone – engineering (14)
• Derek Keota – engineering (19, 23)
• Micah Petit – engineering (19, 23)
• Will Maclellan – vocal engineering (12)
• Katie Harvey – engineering assistance (1–20, 22, 23)
• Noah McCorkle – engineering assistance (1–20, 22, 23)
• Robert N. Johnson – engineering assistance (2, 4–6, 9, 12–15, 17–21)
• Syd Tagle – engineering assistance (2, 8, 10–12, 15–17)
• Trey Pearce – engineering assistance (2, 9, 17)
• Hayden Duncan – engineering assistance (3, 10, 12, 15, 16)
• DJ Riggins – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
• Jacob Richards – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
• Mike Seaberg – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
• Rachel Blum – engineering assistance (3, 17, 23)
• Ben Sedano – engineering assistance (5, 7, 19)
• Anthony Vilchis – engineering assistance (5, 18)
• Trey Station – engineering assistance (5, 18)
• Zach Pereyra – engineering assistance (5, 18)
• Jon Sher – engineering assistance (5)
• Kaushlesh Purohit – engineering assistance (7)
• Noah Hashimoto – engineering assistance (7, 13)
• Jonathan Lopez – engineering assistance (8, 14)
• Patrick Gardner – engineering assistance (14)
• Austin Christy – engineering assistance (15)
• Jeremy Dilli – engineering assistance (16, 18)
• Shelby Epstine – engineering assistance (20)

Trivia

• It is SZA's album with most songs on it's standard edition (23).
• The album cover was inspired by a picture of Princess Diana that was taken a week before her death.
• This is SZA's first album where all of the songs aren't explicit.
• A deluxe edition of the album is expected to be released soon.
• The original cover was set to be SZA on a shipping barge, but the idea was later changed due to several difficulties while making it.