Ctrl - SZA
SZA's unfiltered, open, and relatable personal look into the challenges of life for someone in their twenty somethings.
Setting the Scene:
In 2011, SZA was performing at an event hosted by CMJ, a music event coordinating and online media company, when she caught the attention of several members of the label Top Dog Entertainment, or TDE for short. By this point, TDE had already become an established label since their current roster consisted of Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, and Kendrick Lamar. After several years of communication, TDE officially signed SZA in 2013, and shortly after this she released her third EP, first under a record label, Z. From here, SZA began writing tracks for other artists such as Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna. Working with major names like these, raised SZA’s popularity, and anticipation for her album began to grow. She even appeared on the opening track for Rihanna’s Grammy award winning album, Anti, which helped her receive more notice as well.
In the conception of her debut album, SZA began to work with several different talents and recorded around 150-200 songs before narrowing them down. Legendary producer, Rick Rubin, was chief among those that helped SZA while she was creating the album. He offered the advice to strip down her tracks more to create room for “everything else to be beautiful and grow” and SZA embraced this with her vision for the album moving forward. She began to work with producer, Carter Lang as well and the two created a space of creativity where they could work well off of each other, and by the time the album had finished being recorded, Lang received production credits on eight of the fourteen tracks on Ctrl. Release of SZA’s debut album ran into several issues and in October of 2016, she publicly expressed her frustration around the release even stating that she was going to be quitting TDE. The irony of this was that Ctrl is SZA’s expression of feeling like she lacked control over her own life and when looking to share this she could not control when it would be heard. Despite this, finally in June of 2017, SZA’s much anticipated debut album Ctrl was released.
Personal Thoughts:
In many ways SZA’s Ctrl feels like a confession of emotions tied to multiple different aspects of her life. At times, the lyrics are so genuine and open that it’s hard not to connect with SZA as she reveals secrets and insecurities she has held while traversing her twenties. On top of this, SZA brings both her mom and grandmother into the album to provide life lessons and perspective on the central theme of the album, control. Again, this adds to the genuineness of the album as SZA lets us into her family life and hear from the people who guide her, so that we, as listeners, can receive that same advice. Along with all of the lyrical content of the album, the production of the album play a large role in bringing the right sounds together to not only add to the feeling that the album is an intimate look into SZA’s life, but also to create a unique sound that smoothly combines R&B with trap and soul.
Within the opening minute of the album, SZA begins the first track of Ctrl with a cutting secret on “Supermodel”, which she has revealed in interviews is also the first time she has told anyone about this, including the ex-lover she is addressing in the song:
“Heard you got some new homies, got some new hobbies
Even a new ho too
Maybe she can come help you
Maybe she can come lick you
After we’re done, what’s done is done
I don’t want nothing else to do with it
Let me tell you a secret
I’ve been secretly banging your homeboy
Why you in Vegas all up on Valentine’s Day?”
These lyrics are unfiltered and honest and SZA lets us know immediately that she is willing to tell us about the deeply personal parts of her life on this album. This unfiltered honesty is heard later on in the album on the song “Drew Barrymore,” but in this case SZA is reflecting on her own insecurities. By the time this verse from SZA comes in, she has painted the picture that she is at a party for a boy before realizing that he brought a girl with him. Distraught, SZA starts criticizing herself:
“I get so lonely, I forget what I’m worth
We get so lonely, we pretend that this works
I’m so ashamed of myself, think I need therapy-y-y-y
I’m sorry I’m not more attractive
I’m sorry I’m not more ladylike
I’m sorry I don’t shave my legs at night”
With lyrics like this, we hear the personal thoughts SZA has while anxious, and seeing her handle them by putting herself down is relatable and creates a space for emotionally rooted connection with the listener.
Throughout Ctrl, SZA’s mom and grandmother offer her words of wisdom to help her get through the many emotions and situations she brings up throughout the album. This can be heard on “Garden (Say It Like Dat)” where SZA’s late grandma, Norma Rowe, offers advice about handling people in life that you don’t get along with:
"If you don’t like me, you don’t have to fool with me
But you don’t have to talk about me or treat me mean
I don’t have to treat you mean
I just stay out of your way
That’s the way we work that one”
Again, SZA gives us a look into her life completely unfiltered, and for a few moments we get to sit with her and her grandma to learn about handling problems that we all face. With this being said, I do think that the beautiful messages included in the album can be jarring as they don’t typically relate to the current song or the following one. If SZA had tied these messages into the album’s lyrics, I think the overall album would have felt more cohesive. My favorite moment on the album is actually when SZA’s mom, Audrey Rowe, finishes her thoughts on how valuable letting go of control can be at the end of “Doves in the Wind,” and this flows directly into the opening note of “Drew Barrymore.” More parts like this could have musically connected the wonderful pieces of advice with the special production.
Speaking of the production, Ctrl’s unique production finds a way to combine the hard hitting 808s of trap music with the smoothness of R&B, but still create a backdrop for the album that is warm and intimate to match the themes of the album that SZA sings about. “The Weekend, ” is a prime example of how Rick Rubin’s advice to simplify tracks paid dividends on the album. The song opens with a warm synth line which sets the intimate tone and as soon as this line ends, the heavy trap drums come in and are given time to feel like the focus, then later on a new synth line is softly introduced to maintain consistency and warmth in the production. SZA’s voice comes in on top of all of this and her uniquely beautiful, smooth R&B delivery floats on top of these bassier elements of the song to tie together these different genres.
From a personal side, Ctrl came out at a time when me and most of my friends were entering or early on in our twenties, and as the final song in the album references, most of this album describes some of the challenges life holds for twenty somethings. I think the timing of when this album became a part of my life could not have been better, and now I am a similar age as SZA was when she released this project. Nowadays, I think this album is a helpful reminder to everyone that we are all trying to figure life out, and to do that we can reflect and look for guidance from the people we love, regardless of if we’re twenty or eighty. I hope this gives you a taste of what the album has to offer, and entices you to listen to more if you haven’t already. Check out some of the album with three of my favorite tracks below, and let me know your thoughts about SZA’s personal unfiltered statement on control.