American R&B singer Solána Imani Rowe, professionally known as Sza, flexes versatility on her newest album, SOS.

It has been a long five years since Sza’s last project, partially because of record label issues that delayed her album’s release. Amidst the anticipation, she released several features and songs every once in a while to keep fans afloat. One song, titled “Shirt,” was previewed in a music video she did in 2020. The song at its full length holds up just as well as the minute-long snippet.

Unfortunately, Sza has said this long-awaited album may be her last. It’s sad that she could be leaving behind a catalog of such consistently great music, but this album conveniently has the most music out of any other project she has ever released. 

Sza tests the waters on this album with a rock-inspired sound and shows off her rap skill on occasion. “Nobody Gets Me” is the album’s best song, in terms of the stunning vocal range she displays. 

A collaboration between Sza and Phoebe Bridgers has been long overdue and they don’t waste a minute on “Ghost In The Machine.” The catchiness of Sza’s pre-chorus and chorus mixed with Bridgers’ brief but strong songwriting makes this song so great. The track’s themes of self-absorption and lack of humanity are expressed in a moving way. This thoughtful song ends perfectly with an outro of the spiritual guru Sadhguru and Sza having a powerful conversation.

Sza’s rapping can first be heard on the title track, “SOS,” which is produced by Jay Versace, a social media comedian turned Grammy-winning producer. He has another production credit on “Smoking on my Ex Pack,” which is another song in which she flaunts her rapping. The two seemingly have great chemistry together since these happen to be her most braggadocious songs on the album. 

Sza is no stranger to being vulnerable in her lyrics, so the rawness of “Special” is not a surprise. The lyrics have a noticeable similarity to one of her biggest songs, “Normal Girl.” It’s one of the heavier songs on the album that many may relate to.

Frequent collaborator Travis Scott teams up with Sza on “Open Arms” and delivers the smoothest rap verse with his signature auto-tuned vocals. He’s also featured another time on “Low,” providing background vocals. 

The album is quite limited in featured artists. According to Sza, some collaborators did not submit their contributions on time. This does not seem to be too much of an issue for her, sonically, since she manages to make the most out of each song. 

Though this could be Sza’s last body of work, she is going out on quite a high note – especially with the posthumous ODB feature on her outro track. There are some songs that may be hit-or-miss, but the album is of great quality and Sza’s singing voice is noticeably polished this time around.