HOW THE TURNTABLEZ TAKES A CLOSER LOOK: CTRL BY SZA
This week marks the third anniversary of SZA’s debut album, and one of my fave albums of all time, CTRL
CTRL debuted in June of 2017 and has continued to mesmerize its listeners with her songs that read like diary confessions that speak of sexuality, self-doubt, and the other woes of being a twenty-something woman. SZA flirts with the boundary lines of several different genres; and while you could try and describe her as Neo-soul or Alt R&B, the influence of synth-pop, folk, and jazz are so evident in this debut album that it makes it hard to pin her down as one thing.
The album opens with “Supermodel,” a letter to a toxic lover where she airs her grievances towards him and expresses her own insecurities over haunting singular strums of an electric guitar. Within the first minute of the entire album, SZA somehow says “ Let me tell you a secret/ I’ve been secretly banging your homeboy/Why you in Vegas/ All up on Valentine’s Day?”-cutting words that you might miss thanks to her pure and sweet vocals.
Side A of the 2-disc album continues to deliver, with the following two tracks featuring two industry heavy hitters, Travis Scott (mayor of Houston lol) and Kungfu Kenny himself, Kendrick Lamar. Both tracks are bangers in their own right; but SZA truly shines in “Doves In the Wind”, an ode to female tenacity and sexuality, with Forrest Gump references and moments with K Dot yelling “P*SSY!” woven throughout.
This side is bookended by “Drew Barrymore”, a dark romantic tune with sad strings, steady tambourine, and pained, soulful vocals performed by our songstress. The woman in this song looks a lot like the heroine of many movies played by the actress this song is named after: painfully vulnerable, unsure of herself, and longing to be loved.
The theme of this song carries into “Garden (Say It Like Dat)”, where SZA sings the the almost aggressively relatable line “You know I’m sensitive about havin’ no booty/ havin’ no body/ only you buddy” over a melancholy trap beat. This lingering melancholy takes a different form in “The Weekend”, a track that is often confused as a sidechick anthem but in actuality, is about a woman coming to terms with the fact that her lover is one she’s sharing with other women.
While the album is chockfull of sad-girl anthems, the songs “Broken Clocks”, “Go Gina”, “Wavy” (featuring James Fauntleroy, who lays his Midas touch on pretty much any track he’s on), and “Normal Girl” add a little lightness to the album and danceability. The biggest contributor of hope to CTRL is what anchors the album from start to finish- the voicemail clips from Solana’s grandmother, full of wisdom and heartwarming quips that carry SZA through all the difficult themes of CTRL.
The final track that rounds out the entire album is “20 Something”, the perfect song to listen to as while taking a solo drive at sunset and contemplating every single facet of your life. This song starts similarly to the album’s first song, with a singular guitar plucking, providing a sense of innocence and honesty as SZA sings of the fear and uncertainty of being in your twenties. The echoes of a small chorus sound like they could be SZA’s friends, a source of solace and comfort in what is otherwise an incredibly lonely and difficult theme.
It’s the perfect ending to an album that was created to be imperfect- an unrefined, incredibly honest body of work comprised of anthems and lamenting ballads that resonate so deeply with anyone who has ever dealt with the pressures of living in an ever changing world and finding their place in it. Maybe SZA is saying there’s beauty in the unknown and the imperfect, and that there is a way to find peace and control within it.
