TRACK REVIEW: SZA - Good Days — Music Musings & Such

TRACK REVIEW:

SZA

PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Wirija for British Vogue

Good Days

9.6/10

The track, Good Days, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh64haEP9g8

RELEASE DATE:

25th December, 2020

GENRES:

Alternative R&B/Neo Soul/Hip-Hop

ORIGIN:

Missouri, U.S.A.

LABELS:

Top Dawg Entertainment/RCA Records

__________

ONE does not expect many good tunes to come in…

PHOTO CREDIT: Cara Stricker for FADER

this late in the year but, on Christmas Day, SZA (Solána Rowe) put out Good Days! I am going to get to the song itself and review it in a bit but, before moving on, I wanted to mention SZA and give us some background – and also shines a spotlight on her debut album of 2017, Ctrl. If you are new to the mighty SZA, then this interview/feature from FADER from 2018 provides some nice biography and illustration:

“If her path to Ctrl was somewhat unexpected and winding, it’s appropriate that the time before it was as well. SZA was born Solána Imani Rowe in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up the daughter of an executive producer at CNN (her father) and an AT&T executive (her mother) in the affluent suburb of Maplewood, New Jersey. Though her parents practiced different religions — her father is Muslim and her mother a Christian — she was raised Muslim and attended a Muslim prep school. She was a gymnast for 13 years and, in high school, also a cheerleader, though her other extracurricular activities were limited. She wasn’t allowed to watch TV or listen to the radio; her music world was limited to whatever her father enjoyed, namely jazz classics from Billie Holiday and Miles Davis.

After attending three different colleges, where she studied marine biology and ultimately dropped out, SZA took a succession of short-lived jobs including bartending and working at Sephora. When I ask if she lived at home during that time her voice is firm: “No. Hell, no,” she insists. “Once I started getting bread, I just lived anywhere else but home. And if I didn’t have bread, I would rather, like, just couch-to-couch. My parents didn’t fuck with the way I was moving, so I didn’t really have an option.”

In 2011, she became acquainted with Top Dawg Entertainment, meeting label co-president Terrence “Punch” Henderson at a Kendrick Lamar show where she was distributing merchandise for a clothing label. She stayed in touch with Punch as she began recording music, at first with her brother Daniel, a rapper who goes by MNHATTN, and later by “snatching songs off SoundCloud” and recording over the stolen beats and arrangements. It was all “hella casual,” she says.

Eventually came the release of two EPs: 2012’s See.SZA.Run and S, which she released independently in April 2013. Four months later, it was announced she’d signed with TDE. Her first studio EP, Z, followed in April 2014. In between working on her own projects, she became an in-demand songwriter, creating hits for Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Maroon 5. The plan was to release her proper debut, then tilted A, in mid-2016. She told Entertainment Weekly in May of that year that the project would be out “while everyone is still in a bathing suit.” Her prediction would be off by about a year”.

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover for SZA’s 2017 debut album, Ctrl

As there is no firm word on when we might get a follow-up to Ctrl, I am going to concentrate on that album, as it was not like it arrived out of nowhere with SZA being this fresh-out-of-the-blocks artist. There was this ascension and path to the album, and, at one point, she almost jacked in music. Listening to Ctrl, and one hears so much confidence and a sense of real intent! It is hard to believe that it arrived from an artist who was slightly unsure about her career and future before recording it. In the first part of this 2017 interview with The Guardian, SZA was asked about quitting music and whether it was a serious intent:

“Her debut album, Ctrl, has finally been released, and it has turned out to be one of the most inventive and intimate records of the year, an astonishing collection of styles and stories that feels like a hazy conversation over a long night with a close friend. Its often brutal honesty about sex and relationships and self-esteem for women in their 20s has found a dedicated and devoted fanbase – the new season of Insecure, for example, uses tracks from it in multiple episodes.

So how serious was she really about quitting? “Super serious,” she insists today, in the back room of a house in south London, where she’s curled up in an armchair, texting friends and family back home. “I don’t feel subscribed to anything. So I feel like, when this isn’t fun, I’m not gonna do it any more. When I can’t grow, I’m not gonna do it any more. But it’s still fun.” She laughs knowingly. There’s a pause. “For now.”

One of the most memorable and notable elements of Ctrl is that it is pretty honest and bare. There is a sense of brazenness (as some reviews have picked up on) and there is plenty of beauty and rawness mixing together. SZA dealt with anxiety whilst writing and recording, and what we hear on the album is this true artist with no sense of boundaries regarding how she pushed R&B. Ctrl is a raw and exciting album but, as I said, one with enormous beauty.

PHOTO CREDIT: SSENSE

As we learn from the interview in The Guardian, there was one big problem with putting the album out there: what her mother might think of it! We also discover more about SZA (Rowe’s) upbringing:

The one problem with laying her life bare like this is that she thinks her mother doesn’t like it. Rowe was born in Missouri and raised in New Jersey, and there are reports online that she was raised in a strict Muslim household. The reality is slightly more complicated than that. “My mom didn’t let me eat sugar or candy until I was older,” she explains. “She didn’t let me perm my hair till I was old as fuck. And I begged her to. My mom is a Pan-Africanist. My dad is still Orthodox Sunni Muslim, but he’s super fun. He worked in television for years. He was a Black Panther.” So wait, they weren’t that strict? She laughs. “No, they are strict. I just didn’t care! I made it very difficult for them.”

Rowe says that when she broke away from Islam as a teenager, she stopped speaking to her father for a while. Her mother, who appears on Ctrl in a series of spoken-word interludes, hasn’t mentioned the album at all to her daughter. “I know she probably thinks I’m very exposed. My mother is probably mortified actually about my album, but she loves me so much.” She wouldn’t tell you? “No, because it’s a personal opinion. And we already kinda had this talk when Beyoncé dropped her album. My mom was like, ‘I feel naked listening to her album. I just feel like there’s some things you shouldn’t say to the world.’ That was already after I had made Supermodel and Doves in the Wind, and those songs were done.”

I want to source one more section from the same interview because, as there was a sense of expectation around Ctrl and quite a lot of hard work put into it, one can understand that her record label (RCA) must have been quite itchy at times. As we learn from the interview, I think things got to a point when others had to decide when the album was ready to go:

Eventually, Rowe explains, Ctrl came out in June because “they cut me off”. So who decided it was finished? “They just took my hard drive from me. That was all. I just kept fucking everything up. I just kept moving shit around. I was choosing from 150, 200 songs, so I’m just like, who knows what’s good any more?” She doesn’t know who took it, just that it was gone from the safe in the studio one day. So after all that, this Ctrl isn’t necessarily the Ctrl you would have put out? “No, absolutely not. Any longer and I probably wouldn’t … I’m also driving myself fucking crazy, so I don’t know. Give me another month and it would have been something completely different.”

However, she doesn’t think we’ll have to wait so long for the follow-up. “No! I have less anxiety about the things that hindered me putting this album out, so I’ll probably be done in the next six months.” On the next one, she wants to look outwards instead of in, and write about the world. “The woorrrrld,” she whispers, conspiratorially. “Other people. I feel like we’re all connected anyway”.

It is interesting hearing SZA speak about a fairly quick follow-up. I wonder whether 2021 will be a year when we get that long-awaited follow-up - I know she is working on material at the moment. I guess, considering the brilliance of Ctrl, one must be patient when it comes to a suitably-epic second album. I want to keep on the theme of the album and its importance, as I think it is relevant to this review – and it gives one some story regarding an extraordinary artist.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

I want to bring in a great interview with Vogue from 2018, where we get to hear from a modern talent who has been hailed by Barack Obama and Beyoncé (among many others)! I remember the buzz and electricity surrounding SZA when Ctrl came out; many were curious regarding where she would head next and when we would get more music. I would urge people to read the entire interview, but I was particularly interested in a few different sections – regarding how bare her music can be; we learn a little (again) about her background; SZA answers the question as to where she may go next:

“Rowe’s candour is perhaps what has chimed most deeply with her audience – her songs lay bare her own vulnerabilities, desires and emotions as she traces the experiences that have forged her identity. From talking about not shaving her legs in “Drew Barrymore” to admitting feelings of inadequacy in “Supermodel”, Ctrl plays out like a diary, with no subject off the table. After all, she says, “the black experience, the American experience, the human experience, is multifaceted and there are many avenues to be explored.”

It’s only been six years since Rowe started recording mix tapes in a makeshift basement studio, a blanket in place of actual soundproofing, with her “homeboy”, producer Matt Cody. Growing up in leafy, middle-class Maplewood, New Jersey, Rowe – the daughter of a Catholic, Pan-Africanist mother and orthodox Sunni Muslim father – was raised on a musical diet of John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She loves Coltrane for his “emotive and prayerful” quality. “I can’t tell if it’s sad or not,” she says. She could, of course, be describing her own music – that duality is what inspired Donald Glover to cast Rowe in “This is America”. “She always feels very powerful, but vulnerable, to me,” he explains. “I wanted that feeling in the piece.”

While, as her debut album suggests, only Rowe is in control of Rowe, she seems to be enjoying the fact she doesn’t know exactly where she is heading. “Who knows what my talents are, who knows if music is the best way to share my gift – I'm just gonna follow it for as long as I can,” she says. After all, she never imagined she’d find herself here – a certified platinum artist, endorsed by Barack Obama (the former president included her in his favourite songs of 2017 list), with five Grammy and three VMA nominations to her name. “I definitely wanted to be in business – I didn't want to be in music,” she adds. “I thought I was going to have a really nice corner office, a lot of respect and a power suit.” Rowe seems to have tackled the hardest thing first – respect she has in abundance”.

PHOTO CREDIT: GAP

There are a few other things that I want to get nailed and explore before reviewing SZA’s new track. Not to stick like a wet tongue to ice, but I want to keep on the subject of Ctrl. In the interview with FADER that I quoted from earlier, there is an interesting segment regarding how the world perceives SZA and her music - and how she also sees herself. We also learn more about the slightly negative reaction that arrived after the release of the video for the track, The Weekend (directed by Solange):

“I almost want to shake her because even if Ctrl isn’t a 10, the reception was enthusiastic and positive and the album clearly resonated, particularly with young women. For all the success and all the acclaim, there’s still a disconnect between how SZA sees herself and how the world sees her. “I didn’t even fuck with my own album, so I was so confused and almost, like, angry that everyone fucked with it so much,” she says. “It meant everything I felt about myself was wrong. And it was just like, If that’s not the truth, then what is the truth?”

SZA likes to repeat this advice: You’re never as good as people say you are and never as bad as people say you are, either. Advice she now can’t remember who passed along to her. Advice that was probably useful following the late December release of her music video for “The Weekend,” a balmy jam that samples Justin Timberlake and finds SZA plotting a sort of time-sharing system for a man: “My man is my man is your man / Heard that’s her man / Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday / I just keep him satisfied through the weekend / You’re like 9 to 5, I’m the weekend.”

The overwhelming response, at least on the internet, was less generous, the general consensus being that Solange injected too much of her own taste and aesthetic. The criticism played into larger speculation about how much SZA in this era of Ctrl had changed. To some, it served as a sort of avatar for the idea that TDE and the music industry as a whole had crafted her into someone else, with more confessional lyrics, a wider sonic influence, and the adoption of a more polished look and notable weight loss. The question then becomes: Has the polish and shine simply revealed who SZA has always been, or is it a veneer for who she’s being made to be?

PHOTO CREDIT: Roger Kisby

It is interesting learning more about SZA and her plans. I know things have likely altered since the 2018 interview with FADER, but it must have been hard having to make plans and have a sense of focus on the future when we consider how much attention came her way and how busy she was after the release of Ctrl. It must have been quite a dizzying time and quite a strange one! Not that she has gone from an unknown artist to a superstar, but there was this sheer explosion of media spotlight and so many demands. It seemed, back in 2018, there were no firm plans regarding the future:

What she does know is that she wants to put down stronger roots in her adopted home base of Los Angeles, noting that she needs to get around to buying a house the way someone might make a mental note to pick up a carton of eggs on the way home from work.

SZA’s plans for the future sound less like actual plans and more like general movement forward where she’ll hopefully encounter what comes next. It seems somewhat fueled by the lack of permanence that is the life of a musician and the side effects of fame and celebrity. She describes feeling like an inanimate object at times — something talked about rather than to — and she’s become acutely aware of that shift. “Sometimes I feel disconnected, but not by my own decision,” she says. “It’s really people who separate you from them”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Marcus Yam for The Los Angeles Times

It is hard to categorise SZA and her sound. She is not someone who is defined by genre and stands still. Even though her music is very original and incomparable, I was looking around to see which artists might have had an influence on her. It was very illuminating reading an interview with Wonderland. - where we get a glimpse into her young listening tastes:

“SZA spent her childhood listening to Justin’s old band, NSYNC, as well as other boy bands like LFO, Backstreet Boys and Hanson. “I don’t know why, but I was very much an “MMMBop” person,” she says. “I loved that boy band energy. It was intoxicating.” Her diverse musical tastes — including everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Jamiroquai, Björk to Limp Bizkit — all play a part in SZA’s own unique sound, and why she doesn’t want to be categorised within the one genre of R&B. “Nobody does that to white people at all, ever. No one ever does that to Adele or Justin Bieber when they’re wholeheartedly singing R&B. Or Björk, where nobody’s sure what the f**k she’s singing, but it’s energy and nobody’s concerned.”

“It’s like the only genre that we’re allowed to own is R&B and soul, and even then you might get bumped outta that category by somebody with fairer skin and a better marketing team. But I can’t pretend it’s not exciting to see someone who isn’t black execute so exceptionally well. It’s mystifying; the soul is an energy. Like Nai Palm from Hiatus Kaiyote, she’s a f**king force to be reckoned with. She’s one of my favourite voices of soul right now, next to Ari Lennox. R&B is too fickle. I spent too much time growing up on just as much Imogen Heap, and listening to Comfort Eagle by Cake and vibing for people to call me a ‘queen of R&B’. Why can’t I just be a queen, period?”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Campbell Addy

Not to sort of backtrack, but the interview above was conducted in the summer of this year. Earlier in the year, SZA announced that she would not be doing interviews or photoshoots. I am not sure what provoked the announcement, but maybe it was to ensure some privacy and mystery regarding her second studio album:

“SZA took to social media on Wednesday (Feb. 19) to express her displeasure with media coverage, and to open up about experiencing anxiety in the spotlight.

"Not doing any videos Interviews or photos for the rest of my life lol don’t ask," she tweeted.

In another tweet, SZA mentioned fellow artists Normani and Megan Thee Stallion. "S/o Normani and meg tho . My sisters who I love very much and respect deeply . Honored to be apart of ANYTHING w the two of those BLACK QUEENS."

The R&B star, who's currently at work on her sophomore followup to 2017's Ctrl, also got vulnerable discussing her ongoing struggles with mental health. "My anxiety has .03% to do w outside opinion. I was bullied all through high school I could care less. It’s my OWN THOUGHTS THAT HIT DIFFERENT," she tweeted before clapping back at a fan who questioned why anxiety seemed so prevelant among "new celebs."

"Lmao new ? 'Celebs' been out here dying of addiction and depression for DECADES," SZA then fired off. "Be glad Ppl are TALKING to eachother and sharing rather than hiding. Also errbody dying on tv an the government broke the 4th wall ..pretty sure everyone’s fed up rn lol."

SZA then ended the tweetstorm by sharing a photo from inside the recording studio, declaring simply, "Where I belong".

It is good that, it seems, there are firm plans for a second album and some material is coming along. I can understand why, since February, she has given very few interviews…and everyone will ask about a new album. She wants to have some secrecy. Artists give so much away regarding their music and, in the modern age, there is little mystery left. I think we might see something arrive next year but, immersed in new material at a tough time, I can appreciate why SZA does not want to conduct too many interviews and give too much away. It is about time I got to review the Christmas Day treat from SZA that is Good Days!

PHOTO CREDIT: RCA Records

Good Days has this gradual build that really grabs you. We hear background sounds of children laughing and chatting, together with peaceful birdsong. There is a Spanish guitar sound that creates this ripple and energy. The combination of sounds is beautiful. Instantly, one is transported to somewhere gentler and more idyllic as they are treated to this warm and soft blend. Then, a heavy beat comes in, and SZA arrives on the mic. The first verse seems quite timely and relevant to what many of us are experiencing: “Good day in my mind, safe to take a step out/Get some air now, let your edge out/Too soon, I spoke/You be heavy in my mind, can you get the heck out?/I need rest now, got me bummed out/You so, you so, you/Baby, baby, babe/I've been on my empty mind shit”. One cannot help but read those lines as relating to the COVID-19 situation and how there are these restrictions. If the first couple of lines make one think this way, it seems like the theme and inspiration is more concerned with a bad relationship. The vocal performance from SZA throughout is magnificent! There is never overt anger or defeat; instead, there is this blend of determination and beauty that gives the words so much clarity and nuance. I have come back to Good Days a few times because I have been struck by her voice. In the pre-chorus, SZA sings: “I try to keep from losin' the rest of me/I worry that I wasted the best of me on you, baby/You don't care”. I am not sure what provoked the song in terms of a particular relationship or time, or whether it is SZA writing from a less personal space. It does seem that things have been tense and there was a sense of burden being caught in a relationship that was quite damaging or not especially fulfilling – “Gotta let go of weight, can't keep what's holdin' me/Choose to watch while the world break up in front of me”.

In the chorus, there are some backing vocals from Jacob Collier, which adds a nice layer to the song; it also provides a sense of conversation. The focus is still very much on SZA as we get more of the story. It seems that, though things are quite fraught and there is an inevitable sense of confusion emanating from the pain she is experiencing, there is a feeling of optimism too: “All the while, I'll await my armored fate with a smile/I still wanna try, still believe in/Good days, good days, always/Always inside (Always in my mind, always in my mind, mind)/Good day living in my mind”. Maybe one reads the chorus as the heroine being content with living in her mind and her not sure that there is much security and happiness on the outside. I feel there is more positivity to be found. Collier also appears briefly on the second verse and, again, it is a small interjection – he sings the words “On my own” – that adds something extra. I like how biblical references come in on the second verse to express the size and scale of the struggle: “Tell me I'm not my fears, my limitations/I'll disappear if you let me/Feelin' like, yeah (On your own)/Feelin' like Jericho/Feelin' like Job when he lost his shit/Gotta hold my own, my cross to bear alone”. The pre-chorus and chorus then come back in; the emphasis of the sort of struggle and pain she is feeling. It seems that, even if the relationship was once good, the split and situation now is not that bad. The third verse sees SZA looking for space and privacy: “Gotta get right/Tryna free my mind before the end of the world/I don't miss no ex, I don't miss no text/I choose not to respond/I don't regret, just pretend shit never happened/Half of us layin' waste and our youth is in the present/Half of us chasin' fountains of youth and it's in the present now”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nic Bezzina for The New York Times

Before we get to the outro, like we heard in the introduction, there is this beautiful guitar that ripples and runs; some electronic sounds and chatter that all mixes together to project such a heady effect. Maybe it is like the dawn breaking and a new sense of hope coming. Perhaps it is a sort of meditative passage that can calm the heroine – who is going through a lot right now. Although he is not officially credited in terms of ‘featuring’, Jacob Collier provides a smooth and sensuous outro: “Always in my mind, always in my mind, mind/You've been making me feel like I'm/Always in my mind, always in my mind, mind”. I really love Good Days, and I hope that we get some more music fairly soon. It was very unexpected to get a new song from SZA on Christmas Day, but I think it was refreshing that Good Days isn’t a Christmas song, and I know that the lyrics will resonate with many people. It is a typically honest song from an artist who is at the peak of her form! I would recommend people check out Good Days and listen to it through a few times, as it will reveal new things every time. A magnificent song from an artist who, a few days shy of 2021, has provided us with a real treat!

PHOTO CREDIT: Bryan Derballa for Rolling Stone

Not to end on a slightly bummer note, but I want to source from a section from that interview in Wonderland. I quoted earlier - where the subject of quarantine and mental-health was raised. Actually, I think it is quite important, as different artists have had their own experiences. SZA was asked how she is coping with lockdown and quarantine:

“As we wrap up our chat, talk turns back to our present way of quarantine living and the effect that it’s having on our mental health. Currently living with her best friend Amber, who was her college roommate, plus her dog and a bunny rabbit gifted to her by a former neighbour, SZA isn’t completely on her own — but she is learning how to be alone with herself.

“It’s definitely hard for me because I’m always with somebody and it’s crazy to not have the option to go out and do anything. But that’s when you have to get used to yourself. I realised I don’t enjoy spending time by myself, then I was like, ‘Do I not like myself?’ And I was like, ‘No b***h, you don’t like yourself for a host of reasons and you’re trying way too hard for people that are already your friends to like you because you don’t like yourself.’ So right now I’m learning how to spend time with myself… You can’t waste time pretending or trying too hard. Everyone who doesn’t like you wasn’t gonna like you anyway”.

I am not sure whether Good Days will appear on a new album; more likely, it is this single gem in the form of a great Christmas present. It is a fantastic song, and I know that there is going to be increased excitement and desire for a new SZA album! One cannot push too hard because, especially in a year as weird as 2020, many artists have not been as busy or been able to write as they usually would. I do think we will get some wonderful albums next year. One from SZA would be fantastic. I will end – having reviewed a magnificent song – by sending a salute to…