Los Angeles, Dec 21 (IANS): 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.