SZA has confirmed that her new album ‘Lana’ is a deluxe edition of 2022’s ‘SOS’, teasing new music in a social media post.
- READ MORE: SZA live at Glastonbury 2024: mesmerising shapeshifter proves her place as a headliner
SZA has been teasing ‘Lana’ since 2023 – she recently appeared on streamer Kai Cenat’s livestream alongside Lizzo, where she said that there’s “a whole new project” that people have yet to hear, and that it’ll be out “before the year is over”.
The tease elicited major reactions from Lizzo and Kai Cenat, who began screaming in surprise.
This isn’t the first time SZA has said that new music will drop before 2025. In November, it was reported that SZA’s next project will arrive in autumn this year, which will conclude right before Christmas.
Now, SZA has shared a teaser on Instagram, with the album title ‘Lana’ accompanied by ‘SOS Deluxe’ in all-caps. The post was published yesterday (December 9), marking the two-year anniversary of ‘SOS’.
“Clock starts now”, she wrote. “Happy anniversary”. The teaser features SZA singing over a sample of The Isley Brothers’ ‘Voyage To Atlantis’. No release date has been confirmed for ‘Lana’.
It comes after SZA recently confirmed that she’s taking a break from performing live “for a while”. “Every day I grapple with, ‘Am I done with music?’” she said. “Maybe I’m just not meant to be famous – I’m crashing and burning and behaving erratically. It’s not for me because I have so much anxiety.
“But why would God put me in this position if I wasn’t supposed to be doing this? So I just keep trying to rise to the occasion. But I’m also just like, ‘Please, the occasion is beating my ass.’”
Touching on creating new music for ‘Lana’, she said it came from a “more beautiful place” than previous efforts. “From a more possible place versus a more angsty place. I’m not identifying with my brokenness. It’s not my identity. It’s shit that happened to me. Yeah, I experienced cruelty. I have to put it down at some point. Piece by piece, my music is shifting because of that, the lighter I get.”
In our review of the singer’s Glastonbury 2024 headline set, NME wrote in a four-star review: “As disjointed as this show occasionally is, though, it’s hypnotic and potent. The turnout is noticeably small for a headliner, but the extra space on the ground allows young women to share smiles of recognition and understanding with strangers while singing along to songs centred on overcoming toxic romances and self-esteem battles.”
Most recently SZA appeared on Kendrick Lamar’s surprise album ‘GNX’ – she had hinted at the record more than a month ago. She will also tour with Lamar on a joint 2025 ‘Grand National’ North American stadium trek.
