SZA finds the success of ‘SOS’ “scary” because she was expecting people to hate it
SZA has admitted that the success of her recently-released second album ‘SOS’ is “scary” because she was expecting it to flop.
SZA released her long awaited second album ‘SOS’ last week (December 9) and it’s already topped the Billboard 200, reached Number Two in the UK Album Charts and seen SZA become the most listened to artist on Spotify. Her 17-date North American arena tour sold out in seconds.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone though, SZA said she “never thought in a million years that people would like it.”
She went on to talk about various emotional low points throughout the recording process and revealed that the week before ‘SOS’ was released, she text her record label saying “we don’t have to put this out. We could just pull out and move it to January.”
“[Another] part of me was just like, I just wanna get it over with. I wanna meet my own fate. If [people] hate it, then great. I can never do music again. And I told my engineer, we’ll move to India and we’ll live on an ashram and we’ll take a vow of silence and that’s it,” continued SZA.
“And it is also really scary that it didn’t go that way because I’m like, now what do I do,” she added.
In a five-star review, NME wrote: “Five years ago, SZA was heralded for redefining R&B with her eclectic influences and ‘SOS’ takes that range even further. “I’m making the best album of my life for this next album,” SZA told Flaunt in 2020 and ‘SOS’ is just that – a phenomenal record that barely puts a foot wrong and raises the bar even higher than she set it before.”
“That quote, though, came with a caveat: “Because it’s going to be my last album.” Here’s hoping SZA reneges on that declaration but, if this is the last we hear from here, at least she’s going out on the highest of highs.”
It’s also been revealed – via a behind the scenes documentary – that ‘SOS’ could have featured collaborations with the likes of Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Drake and Frank Ocean.
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Ali Shutler
NME
