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“That is my greatest fear, if I lost control or did not have control, things would just you know, be fatal.”
Photo Credit: Fandom Wiki
It has been 6 years since SZA’s 2017 debut album, Ctrl, was released. Ctrl is a modern R&B masterpiece that plays with the truth and the art of being human with the postmodern shift in our culture to what it means to be in love. Years after its release the album still holds up to the glowing reviews from its debut. The album is a letter from SZA to herself and the demons in her past with the mentorship of her family members through voice memos.
The album is a preview into SZA’s mind and her ideas of what love is (whether self or romantic) through her lyricism. With the lines from Supermodel, “Let me tell you a secret, I've been secretly banging your homeboy”, she is brutally admitting to cheating on her partner and doesn’t seem to feel remorse or even be phased by it. SZA’s definition of love is complicated and that’s okay. SZA’s brutal honesty doesn’t stop there, in The Weekend the line “My man is my man, is your man, heard that’s her man” reveals her unconventional ways of love, knowing that she isn’t the only person her partner is with doesn’t bother her,
even admitting that she will share him as long as she gets to see him more often.
The issue of self-love (and SZA’s lack thereof) is a prevalent subject in the album. We see how SZA struggles with her self-image, even feeling insecure about her position in her relationship because of her body. In Garden (Say It Like Dat), SZA sings “I know you’d rather be laid up with a big booty... You know I’m sensitive ‘bout having no booty, having no body.” She also reveals how she is scared to be her true self in fear of pushing possible relationships away, saying “And hope you never find out who I really am, ‘cause you’ll never love me.” SZA’s definition of self-love is corrupted based on her prevalent fear of losing love. Her ability to destroy herself to keep someone is nothing new to her. She is even self-aware that her self-destructive behavior isn’t healthy with the line from Drew Barrymore, “I get so lonely I forget what I’m worth, we get so lonely we pretend this works, I'm so ashamed of myself I think I need therapy” stating it.
The peak of the album is Prom. SZA writes about the fears surrounding a quarter-life crisis, explaining how she feels like she is wasting time and spending more of her time afraid than growing. Sonically and lyrically the track conveys her anxiety of having the pressure and stress of being an adult weighing her down. Where the album loses momentum is in Wavy (Interlude) (feat. James Fauntleroy). Admittedly the track is not bad; however, the change in sound takes the listener out of the experience. The surrounding tracks Anything and Normal Girl are sonically similar but the shift to Wavy seems out of place.
Here is my ranking of the album:
1. Prom
2. 20 Something
3. Supermodel
4. The Weekend
5. Love Galore (feat. Travis Scott)
6. Doves In The Wind (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
7. Drew Barrymore
8. Garden (Say It Like Dat)
9. Anything
10. Go Gina
11. Normal Girl
12. Broken Clocks
13. Pretty Little Birds
14. Wavy (Interlude) (feat. James Fauntleroy)
Ctrl is a debut done right! At the time the 27-year-old SZA sparked into the mainstream audience with this album, even earning her a dedicated fanbase that stuck with her, even through her 5-year album hiatus.
SZA’s Ctrl proved that music is art and that it is alive and well!
Album Rating: 9/10
Mathew/Mateo is a 16-year-old Californian high schooler with delusions of being a journalist in NYC. He loves to write about anything to do with music, film, and fashion. Specifically, he writes about how music and film influence pop culture and the growing trends that emerge from them. In addition, his specialty is writing album reviews in hopes of his reviews becoming trusted like Pitchfork’s and Anthony Fantano’s.
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