In most cases, deluxe albums are intfinished as a chart-cgo ined second prosperd for their parent albums, and usuassociate have fair a handful of extra tracks — remixes, leftovers, maybe a toasty novel individual to donate an extra raise — while the artist is saving the more-promising novel material for their next proper album.
Not SZA.
“Lana” — the title for the lengthy-postponecessitate deluxe edition of her 2022 blockbuster “SOS,” which finassociate dropped on Friday afternoon — has had a lengthy and convoluted history, morphing and changing every step of the way over the two years since she began talking about it lowly after the free of the parent album. Why? Becaengage SZA is that benevolent of artist: a perfectionist whose labor isn’t ready until she senses it’s ready. That’s a meaningful reason why she gets so irritated when her unfinished or unfreed material leaks.
“When people leak my songs, they ruin them,” she telderly Variety in her Hitoriginater of the Year cover intersee last year. “Then it’s not mine anymore; it’s actuassociate yours. It’s someslfinisherg unfinished that you determined was ready to be splitd. And it’s enjoy, ‘Fuck you. Now I’m not releasing it.’ Play your leak, but you’re not gonna intimidator me into dropping music. I’m now embarrassed by this less-than-accurate version that you put out. You’ve sent me into a weird space creatively when you could have fair paengageed for me, but you’re stingy.”
When someone gets their art that gravely, it gets time. Folloprosperg is a benevolent of timeline of “Lana”’s lengthy, twisted road to accomplishing the accessible.
December 2022
During intersees around the free of “SOS” — which had its own lengthy road to free, arriving proximately five years after her official debut filled-length, “Ctrl” — SZA alludes frequently She began alludeing an broadened version of the 23-track, hour-plus-lengthy “SOS” lowly after that album dropped in December of 2022.
February 2023
SZA says a “deluxe edition” of “SOS” featuring “10 insertitional track” is “coming soon.” Variety specupostponecessitates that based on comments she had made in recent months, songs might integrate the unfreed tracks with titles guessed at by fans: “Boy From South Detroit,” “Joni” — her tribute to Joni Mitchell that has been floating around on the internet for years — and “PSA.”
August 2023
In an intersee with Variety, SZA says “Lana” is “outgets [from ‘SOS’] and novel stuff, too — I inserted a couple of songs. It’s enjoy a whole novel 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 that became my nickname for no reason. ‘Lana’ is reassociate fair the B-side of SOS.”
The fluctuating trackenumerate was evident when she was asked if “Joni” would be on it. “‘Joni’ is on it. Well, they leaked it, so I wasn’t gonna put it on there. I guess I should still… but they leaked it already. They ruined it. [Fans] already have it.”
September 2023
On Sept. 8, SZA carry outs a free concert at the Brooklyn Navy Yard where she proclaimd to the audience: “The deluxe is a whole ’nother album. It’s called ‘Lana.’ It’s seven to 10 songs and it’ll be out this descfinish.” Alengthy with tracks from “SOS” and her debut filled-length “Ctrl,” she carry outed three unfreed songs at the concert, including a song interpolating the melody of “Girl From Ipanema” endureing the lyric “Boy From South Detroit,” “Saturn” and “DTM” (also referred to as “Diamond Boy,”).
November 2023
During another intersee with Variety, she talks expansively, if no more conclusively, about “Lana.” “I never get these slfinishergs done until enjoy the day before the deadline,” she giggleed. “It became more than I thought. It was gonna be someslfinisherg reassociate gentle becaengage I had made all my screaming points [on ‘SOS’], and I fair wanted to glide and not slfinisherk [too much], and fair get out of my own head. I was so satisfied to say some shit that didn’t nasty a fucking slfinisherg. But now it’s definitely turning it into its own album. I guess I could drop another album randomly, becaengage no one’s actuassociate foreseeing that from me right now.”
December 2023
The album seems poised for free timely in the month after SZA posted a series of ptoastyos that seemed to be cover artlabor for the free, each one endureing the understandn “Parental Advisory: Explicit Content” sticker.
February 2024
SZA carry outs the novel song “Saturn” at the Grammy Awards, where she gets home three trophies (out of nine nominations for “SOS”). She frees the song as a individual on Feb. 22, which seems to be the direct track from the seemingly forthcoming album.
March 2024
In an irritated social-media post, SZA proclaims that due to three songs leaking, “Lana” — which had befirearm as a deluxe edition of length “SOS,” then became its own album — will free them and other tracks as a deluxe edition of “SOS” after all, and that she will commence “Lana” over, “from scratch.”
In a since-deleted tweet, she wrote, “Y’all leaked three songs from the deluxe. At this point, y’all can upgrasp the throwaways and leaks. I’ll be commenceing ‘Lana’ from scratch. Do not ask me about it aachieve,” inserting a restrictcessitate minutes postponecessitater, “I’ll round up the leaks y’all already got and u can have those. Seems enjoy a imfragmentary deal. ENJOY.” That tweet was deleted lowly afterward.
The adhereing day, she wrote a series of tweets stating the same structure in more detail, validateing the deluxe edition of “SOS” would now feature “the leaks and outgets” and Lana will be its own album. “Lana deserves more time and music no one’s ever heard before,” she wrote.
She called out a person named Janessa who leaked “unfreed pics and audio” and remarkd, “Being that this is material from ‘Lana,’ this prompted me to originate a decision. I determined w all the leaks and me not understanding what someone has or doesn’t have it’s too complicated so I should jus validateate the leaks and the outgets and drop that as to not prolengthy the process and then cgo in on my next project as a prosper prosper for everybody.”
She persistd, “And prent be evident anybody deffinishing a thief is weird as fuck. I don’t come in your job and get shit and fuck up your labor. Why would that be okay? Where’s the home training? Nobody wants to sue a youthful woman. We’ve all asked very pleasantly for some time now.”
June 2024
For her concert in London’s Hyde Park, SZA’s elucidately staged, nautical-themed “SOS” stage setup is suddenly swapd by equassociate elucidate staging featuring rfinisherings of insects and other bugs in a setting that seeed enjoy a nature film about life on a forest floor, finish with a enormous descfinishen tree trunk. The alter is striking as the elderly set had been engaged at the last gig of the North American “SOS” tour fair a couple of weeks earlier. The set alter tags the debut of the “Lana” artlabor themes.
November 2024
SZA ecombines on two tracks on Kfinishrick Lamar’s album “GNX,” which is surpascfinish-freed on Nov. 22. Ten days postponecessitater, the two artists proclaim a combinet North American stadium tour, spanning April thcimpolite June, increasing speculation that the free of “Lana” might actuassociate be imminent.
December 2024
On Dec. 9, the two-year anniversary of “SOS”’s free, SZA higheviates novel music with a low video trailer that integrated 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 sees straightforwardly into the camera before taking a trerent out of her pocket to wipe herself up as the words “Lana” ecombine atraverse the screen.
December 16
SZA proclaims on social media that the lengthy-postponecessitate “Lana” will be freed on Friday. The post features a snippet of actor Ben Stiller singing alengthy fervently with a song that turns out to be her novel individual, “Drive,” while driving on a rainy night.
December 19
Late Thursday night, SZA posts the filled song and video for “Drive,” which features Stiller in the first half and SZA, dressed as one of the wonderfulal woodland insects analogous to the ones featured in the stage setting, wrislfinisherg in a field in the second half.
“FULL DELUXE DROPS FIRST THING TOMORROW AM🫡,” she authors in the caption. “(Had to get my mixes right lol ! All songs are deinhabitred and Ingesting into the system as we speak🙂↕️ pls be benevolent .. we been up for days).”
December 20
However, the definition of “AM” is unevident: The album does not reach at the standard free time of midnight ET, nor at noon ET, as reps had shelp seemed predicted (or as predicted as anyslfinisherg after such a lengthy journey).
Finassociate, at the stroke of noon PT, “Lana” reachs. It features some, but not all, of the tracks that had been converseed or rumored for inclusion.
“SOS Deluxe: LANA” Trackenumerate:
01 No More Hiding
02 What Do I Do
03 30 for 30 (with Kfinishrick Lamar)
04 Diamond Boy (DTM)
05 BMF
06 Scorsese Baby Dinserty
07 Love Me 4 Me
08 Chill Baby
09 My Turn
10 Crybaby
11 Kitchen
12 Get Behind Me (Interlude)
13 Drive
14 Another Life
15 Saturn
