SZA is signaling for help from the wrong lover on her latest LP, SOS. On the 23-track project, she’s hoping a man that she knows she doesn’t need can keep her from drowning in despair. When she’s not scoffing at her ex who found a mini SZA to lick his wounds, she’s confronting those who thought she wouldn’t be back to reclaim her crown after CTRL.

SZA’s heart is in crisis. Self-love is no where in her vocabulary and causes her to seek validation from men. She feels “free” after sabotaging her relationship in “Seek and Destroy,” but then feels lost without the codependence. She needs to be needed. Worried about trust and abandonment, her self-fulfilling prophecy leaves her where she hates to be: alone with her own thoughts.

Knowing the relationship is a disaster, she runs in and out of the chaos knowing she will feel small in the end on “Love Language.” She’s riding or dying on “Open Arms,” but then left feeling depleted on “Special.” On “Snooze,” she credits her lover for doing what she can’t do: feel like the best version of herself. She has moments where she knows it’s best to choose her like on “Conceited” and “Far,” but then wonders if she should choose him instead on “Too Late.”

It’s safe to say she’s in a state of emergency because of self-inflicted wounds.

SOS opens with SZA commanding our attention on the title track. She’s back with a vengeance and letting it be known that while she was silent, she was plotting on her naysayers (and her ex). The 33-year-old songbird is beaming with a certain cockiness that we’ve never heard before on songs like “Conceited” and “SOS.”

She even dabbled in spitting bars on “Smoking On My Ex Pack,” where she popped ish like: “I’m fucking on heartthrobs/I got your favorite rapper blocked/I heard the dick was whack/Your favorite athlete screamin’, “Text me back.”

Though she knows she’s that girl, she looks for peace, love and happiness in men instead of looking inward. She admits this on “Blind,” where she says:

It’s so embarrassing/
All of the things I need living inside of me/
I can’t see it/
It’s so embarrassing/
All of the love I seek living inside of me/
I can’t see, I’m blind/

The TDE rep is in a genre of her own on SOS.

The LP is infused with Hip-Hop, R&B, rock and pop thanks to producers like Rodney Jerkins, social media sensation Jay Versace, Carter Lang and Rob Bisel and more. The army brat also changed up her flow a bit with a cadence that we can call “rap-singing” on tracks like “SOS,” “Blind,” Low” and “Forgiveless.” Her melodious voice was a delight as usual, showcasing her vocal acrobatics hitting riffs, runs and timbres galore.

The features were slight with appearances from Phoebe Bridgers, Don Toliver, Travis Scott and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard, whose feature is the highlight.

Since fans waited five long years for another album, it was a pleasant surprise to see that SOS was lengthy. Outside of showing her hatred for her ex, she showcased her impressive ability to seamlessly command any beat her voice touches. Among the 23 songs, the mid-tempos and ballads shine the brightest. “F2F” and “Nobody Gets Me,” stick out like sore thumbs, though. While the content of the songs align with the album, the production on those two indie rock tracks didn’t. While the title of the album is a cry for help, SZA shows that she’s quite capable of saving herself.

Take a listen below.