Change The Record: SZA – Lana

Well, now that we’re done with 2024, and are finally ready to head into our new hellish existence in 2025, I think it’d be wise to hack off an old limb still clinging to my leg before reviewing anything new. It was released on December 20, 2024 though so it’s basically a 2025 album. Let’s be honest, you’re not a 2024 album if you only spent as much time in the year as a half-hearted Netflix binge.

So, SZA, not to be confused with RZA or GZA, who she has no actual connection with, nor with FKA Twigs, who also just released an album, and who I will be getting to soon enough. SZA is a hot up and coming new singer from Missouri who is currently signed to Top Dawg records. You likely know Top Dawg as the record label Kendrick used to be a part of before he left, and decided to use Drake’s blood to write GNX. With Kendrick’s departure, SZA is now easily Top Dawg’s biggest money maker, as well as probably their most acclaimed act at the moment, thus making it all the more bizarre that they kinda didn’t do anything with her up until recently. She released her incredible debut album “Ctrl” in 2017, and then struggled to have Top Dawg release any of her music until 5 years later with her follow up “SOS” in 2022.

Now, “SOS” is actually very important here, because this new album “Lana” is technically a deluxe reissue of “SOS” for some reason. I don’t know why, considering it’s a 15 track, 45 minute long album, that’s clearly its own thing with its own sound, but whatever, it’s the 2020’s where everyone releases whole ass albums and just calls them deluxe editions. Now I quite liked “SOS,” it was a more straightforward and hook focused album compared to the more reclusive indie R&B “Ctrl,” but I think it paid off for SZA’s style. Going into “Lana” I thought it’d be more of the same from “SOS” but I was sure wrong, it sounds very different from its predecessor, also known as, the album it’s literally stapled to.

Starting with the opener “No More Hiding,” an extremely low key but very pleasant way to start the album, with a plucky main guitar riff and beautiful blippy synths in the background, and of course, all sauced off with SZA’s ethereal vocals. SZA’s vocals do a decent bit of carrying on her music, but it’s fine because they could carry basically anything, she could do a cd of Mongolian throat singing and it would probably sound transcendent. Her vocals have a very beautiful and rich quality while still having a decent amount of edge and uniqueness to keep her standing out. The vocals especially benefit “Lana’s” more mysterious and slowed down vibe and sound. This is seen in the next track “What Do I Do,” which has beautiful swooshing synth melodies, powerful claps, drums, and synth blips that sound like raindrops hitting the ground.

The next track is “30 For 30,” featuring Kendrick Lamar, a part of his endless victory lap of 2024, which is a decent track. I like the trap drums, and the rich electronic production, but Kendrick always has this somewhat flat quality to his singing that, while charming, does kind of fall short a bit at times, especially compared to the other SZA and Kendrick collab of 2024, “Luther,” off of Kendrick’s album “GNX,” which had a far more compelling performance from both artists that had better chemistry. This is fine though as this is followed up by “Diamond Boy (DTM),” which is a highlight of the album pitched with these sensitive guitars and some of SZA’s most impassioned wails.

SZA’s writing is as solid as ever on the album. She’s great at using heartbreak to make songs that are both extremely relatable, as well as extremely clever and charming. This is shown well on songs like “BMF” and “Scorsese Baby Daddy,” which have her yarn about love lost and love rushed into with a solid amount of wit and personality. Both tracks also have a good rhythm and solid higher tempo letting them get a higher energy out while still remaining low key enough to keep in the background, with some of the best drums on the album. The next track “Love Me 4 Me,” while only being the second best song with that name, is another fantastic track with this very cinematic and passionate main melody throughout, held together by the most angelic falsettos from SZA. The next track, “Chill Baby,” is maybe a little too chill for my liking. It’s only two minutes and is kind of an interlude, goes in one ear and out the other, but the track after it “My Turn” is fantastic. It’s probably one of the most pop ready songs of the album with a solid hook, pittering catchy drums, and some of the most pleasant production on the record.

After that, we reach the longest track on the album without a feature with “Crybaby,” which thankfully, unlike “30 For 30,” justifies its length better by being an emotional and wholly absorbing track, with some of SZA’s most biting and self deprecating writing, hitting all the harder with the conviction she puts in her voice here. After this is “Kitchen,” which is a nice, chilled out, 70s feeling psychedelic number, though it has weird mixing that makes it feel very quiet. Admittedly most of the album has this, it sounds like SZA is shy and didn’t want to be that close to the microphone but it at least kind of works in favor of the album’s sound. 

After a short interlude we enter the album’s final stretch, with “Drive,” and “Another Life,” both being pitched out and wavy guitar led tracks, making solid if not super memorable additions to the album, though “Another Life” does have a pretty fantastic climax near the end. Finally, the album ends with “Saturn,” which is a gorgeous closer, with what sounds like a synthy harp bouncing across the walls in this very spacey track. The lyrics as well are very space themed, connecting to this weird alien thing she had going on to promote the album, but I do love the idea of hating life on earth so much you’d just prefer to be on another planet. It serves this idea of floating away, both physically and mentally, adding to the spaced out melancholic sound of the album overall.

At the end of the day, while I don’t know if I’d say “Lana” is better than SZA’s previous two albums, it’s still an extremely worthy follow up with plenty of its own flavor and and vibe to make it worth checking out, even if you didn’t like her other two albums for whatever reason. That is, if it’s even considered its own album. Who knows, maybe next time someone can release a two hour double album and tack it onto their record as bonus tracks.