With the release of her long-awaited debut LP Ctrl (2017) in June this year, New Jersey R&B singer-songwriter SZA (Solána Imani Rowe) has largely fulfilled Paul Lester’s 2013 observation that the confessionalist crooner was “one possible future for female R&B”. It’s easy to see why she has won over the critics and her peers (and dispelled any notions that her success might be a fluke).
Pharrell described her as “a master of relatable simplicity”, noting her ability as a songwriter to craft intimate and honest lyrics that examine the vulnerabilities and insecurities of young women as they pursue romantic relationships. There’s the contrast between the feelings she wears on her sleeves and that unmistakably evocative, richly textured and larger-than-life vocals, which have earned her comparisons to Billie Holiday, Björk, Lauryn Hill, and Amy Winehouse. Then there’s the contrast between her classic old-school influences (jazz, neo-soul, ‘80s synth pop) and her more modern pop culture references in her lyrics and videography - older cinematic ones like Drew Barrymore’s Never Been Kissed (1999) and the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery (1990), as well as more contemporary ones, like mom jeans and Netflix and chill: ‘Somebody get the tacos, somebody spark the blunt/ Let's start the Narcos off at episode one’.
SZA can now count Drew Barrymore herself as a fan, while being humble about having written songs for Beyoncé (“Feeling Myself”) and Rihanna (“Consideration”). For now, however, she has stopped short of securing overwhelming mainstream success. In its first week, Ctrl took the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200, selling 60,000 equivalent album units (it was overshadowed by Katy Perry’s Witness (180,000 units) and Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN (69,000 units). SZA has two Billboard Top 100s single for now: “The Weekend” (No. 55) and Love Galore (No. 33). The inspired “Homemade Dynamite” remix, which features her, Khalid and Post Malone as guests in Lorde’s raucous-yet-introspective house party, peaked at No. 92.
This is why her feature on Maroon 5’s new song “What Lovers Do” is such a strategic move. It has all the ingredients that drove "Don't Wanna Know”, their collaboration with fellow Top Dawg labelmate Kendrick Lamar, to mainstream ubiquity late last year. There’s that repetitive catchiness and accessible hook-laden lyricism, combining an unmistakable feel-good vibe, hedonic wish-fulfillment, and the slightest hint of melancholy: ‘Been wishin' for you/ Ooh, ooh/ Tryna' do what lovers do (ooh)’. It sits at No. 23 on the Billboard Top 100 for now, making it SZA's highest position thus far.
There’s even a fantastically ridiculous CGI-heavy music video courtesy of maximalist music video director Joseph Khan, which has racked nearly 2 million views within a day. Look out for the romantic chase sequence across Antartic waters, an inexplicable Triceratops on the running track, jet skiing with dolphins, lip-synching animals and a climax where Adam Levine goes Godzilla on Las Vegas after losing a poker game. But most of all, look out for SZA. In this song - which stands to gain her the widest exposure yet (but far less critical acclaim) - she’s not the vulnerable, frustrated and insecure party in the relationship, writing and singing as a form of catharsis. She’s the radiant and confident muse, the woman with the fiery hair and golden voice that we all need to chase.
