GRAMMY Nominees: SOS, SZA

Female artists are breaking out of the confines of genres and album expectations and embracing creative freedom like never before. At the head of the movement: SZA, with her sophomore album SOS. Released five and a half years after her acclaimed debut Ctrl, SOS is comprised of 23 tracks representing a multitude of genres, from R&B hip-hop to indie pop-rock. With nominations in the R&B, Rap, and Pop genres at the 2024 GRAMMYs, SZA clearly doesn't want to be defined as anything but an artist who takes the time to create a multifaceted album with impeccable dedication and absolutely no pretentiousness.

Stand-out tracks: "Used (feat. Don Toliver)" "Gone Girl" "I Hate U" "Good Days"

My favorites: "Seek and Destroy" "Ghost in the Machine (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)" "Nobody Gets Me"

Hip-hop style album intro "SOS" is carefree and organic, setting the tone for the next hour of music as a tumultuous exploration of crumbling relationships and grappling with the search for serenity and self-assurance and leading into SZA's chart-topping "Kill Bill." This SZA’s revenge, and a low-key crazy girl anthem, with SZA proclaiming "Rather be in Hell than alone" as she ruminates on the dark inner desire for her to say “If I can’t have you, no one should.”

SZA takes resentful responsibility for the painful endings of relationships on sultry "Seek & Destroy." She accepts her own flaws with exasperation, but prioritizes herself over surface-level relationships, stating "I hate to do it to you/Do what I gotta do." After experimenting with pop and rap over the first few tracks, SZA leans into her soulful indie-R&B niche with "Love Language.” If reading SOS like a diary, this is the chapter of the album where the lyrics are outlined in little hearts and SZA gushes about her new lover.

SOS hits its groove with back-to-back "Used (feat. Don Toliver)" and "Snooze." This is passionate diaristic writing at its finest, with ear-catching lyrics like "My sanity's at a 6.7" and "Can't lose myself to your ego, I wanna say/Love me better when you try less/I don’t take much, just need your honesty.”

Break-up anthem "Gone Girl" is a moment of confidence and self-assurance achieved, with almost gospel-style backing vocals and spelled out "I need more space and security/I need less voices, just you and me/I need your touch, not your scrutiny." This one is a high point on the album, shining with moments of stunning production and vocal performance. Somehow "Ghost in the Machine (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)" achieves an alternative R&B track, with SZA "craving humanity." The thrumming production, opposites-attract vocal styles of SZA and Phoebe Bridgers, and the spoken outro again referring to “Those who have forsaken their humanity” make this track stand out as a moment of spiraling about feeling so small in the grand scheme of life.

Gone are the smooth R&B tones SZA is known for as the experimental tracks on the album continue on "F2F," which leans into pop-rock style instrumentation and vocalization. While earlier in the album SZA has reflected on the pains and metamorphosis of crumbling relationships and self-discovery, this one is purely lighthearted and carefree sonically while letting out frustration over missing someone lyrically. Stylistically, "Nobody Gets Me" turns acoustic with wide-spanning vocals that make you almost double-take, wondering if this is the same SZA you've been listening to for the first 13 tracks of the album.

The back half of the album is the string of tracks that slow down the pacing a little, with "Conceited," "Special," and "Too Late" leaning into acoustic R&B-influenced pop. These are lighter moments on the album where SZA appears more confessional and lost in her daydream thoughts. While the messy confessional lyricism that's apparent across the entirety of SOS remains, the production shifts back to trap as the album picks up the pace on "Far" and "Shirt." The ultimate descriptor of SOS can be found in the lyrics of thumping off-the-cuff groove "I Hate U": "Heavy reminiscin'/Heavy on the missin' you/Wish it was different than what it was/I've been up, baby/Lost in the lie of us."

The finale of SOS comes with the gleaming acoustics, birds chirping, soft drum patterns, electronic production, and “Gotta let go of weight, can’t keep what’s holding me” lyricism of "Good Days. While SOS has shown us every shade of SZA’s emotions, this is the culmination and resolve of the album as a whole, with every messy, rejected, assured, sincere emotion spilled across its metaphorical pages signed off on with hope for the future.

GRAMMY for Album of the Year

While I can say that for me, SOS as a complete album is far from my favorite album, even amongst the 2024 Album of the Year nominees, I can't deny that it's an astronomical musical achievement. This was clearly an ambitious passion project for SZA that catapulted her towards connection with millions of listeners and brought her the highest level of solo success of her career thus far (see: breaking a 54-year-old record held by Aretha Franklin for the most weeks atop the R&B/Hip-Hop Charts for a female artist). Like the modern love stories, both romantic and personal, illustrated across SOS, the album is messy, vulnerable, complex, and freeing. This is far from a concept album, although the themes of confessional, emotional desire for connection are evident across the album as a whole. Personally, I feel like SOS would benefit from addition through subtraction with the elimination of a few of its 23 tracks to still communicate its message effectively. With its astronomical critical acclaim, army of diehard fans, and ambitious genre-bending relatable musical prowess, SOS remains a top contender for Album of the Year.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: OBSESSED WITH SOME TRACKS

GRAMMY Nominees: the record, boygenius

So many universal fates had to align for the record to end up nominated for Album of the Year at the 2024 GRAMMY Awards. From the unplanned gravitation of band members Phoebe Bridgers, Julian Baker, and Lucy Dacus to one another while on the road for their individual music careers to the sparks flying magic that led the female trio to turn their plans of recording one song together into two EPs and a full-length album to the global attention the trio has gotten with just 22 songs in their catalog (hello SNL performance), the record is a result of the devotion of artists to their craft, women connecting over universal humanizing challenges, and the power of letting music lead the way.

Stand-out tracks: "Not Strong Enough" "Satanist" "Letter to An Old Poet"

My favorites: "True Blue" "Cool About It" "Anti-Curse"

The fully acapella intro "Without You Without Them" is the calm before the storm, when boygenius grabs your attention with reckless "$20." The themes of the album are evident from the get-go, with the band alluding to clinging to hope, vintage rock imagery, and the inescapable pressure of reflecting on your self-growth. The gritty electric guitar of "$20" is distinctly opposite from the soft simplicity of the album's intro, but both (along with the rest of the record) are pure ear-candy in terms of breathtaking harmonies.

Classic rock shifts towards alternative indie-rock heard with toned-down "Emily I'm Sorry" and "True Blue." The thing that makes boygenius so incredible as songwriters is captured so perfectly in these two tracks, where sonorous instrumentals couple with deep-felt emotions and intimate experiences that are illustrated with a stunning balance of honesty and ambiguity: "Now you're moving in/Breaking a sweat on your upper lip/And getting pissed about humidity/And the leaky faucet/You already hurt my feelings three times/In the way only you could."This is an album where I consider every single track for the categories of "stand-outs" or "favorites," only to play a mind game with myself of which ones are truly the greatest of an album of greats.

"Cool About It" and "Revolution 0" reflect on the falling out of relationships, with the former putting a palpable knot in your gut over lines like "I came prepared for absolution, if you'd only ask/So I take some offense when you say, 'No regrets'." "Revolution 0" is acoustic and hazy, setting the scene for the lyrical anecdote of the resolve that not only is someone you've known so well drifting away, but you've lost yourself along the way too: "You wanted a song/So it's gonna be a short one/Wish I wasn't so tired/But I'm tired."

the record instrumentally and lyrically draws you into the sonic world it creates, leaving you daydreaming about long drives through wide-open spaces and reflecting on who you are both to yourself and the people who walk through life by your side. This is never clearer than in the album's pinnacle, "Not Strong Enough," an absolutely stunning indie-rock exploration of reflecting on your pitfalls and toughness. Between the beautifully layered vocals, melodic production, and lyrical processing of the humanity of spiraling about your faults, "Not Strong Enough" is simply a triumph.

After hanging up the electric guitars for a couple of tracks, they're back for high-powered "Satanist," which makes light of the inevitable mistakes we make as human beings. The instrumental on this one mirrors the amusement of leaning into the feeling of "If nothing can be known, then stupidity is holy/If the void becomes a bore, we'll treat ourselves to some self-belief" and then reflecting on your recklessness later.

The last two tracks of the album bring the record to its conclusion; "Anti-Curse," again, invokes incredible imagery, this one being standing on the edge of a cliff calling out your anxieties and dreams. The struggle of coming to peace with yourself is narrated beautifully here: "See, you don't have to make it bad/Just 'cause you know how." The album closer, "Letter to an Old Poet," is one last contemplation on losing someone you've loved only to realize you've fallen more in love with yourself. After the journey of love and loss, anxiety and fears, and reflecting and hoping for something greater throughout the record, "Letter to an Old Poet" transcends every story told across the project and wraps them all into a warm, heart-tugging denouement.

GRAMMY for Album of the Year

There's not a perfect way to describe just how good the record is. It's far from predictable, yet it's cohesive in lyrical theming and sonic instrumentation. It's classic yet resoundingly original. It has stand-out hits that have had multi-week success on the Billboard charts while remaining honest and introspective. It sinks deeper into your soul with each listen. And in a male-dominated industry, three powerful indie-rock female musicians joined forces to knock gender stereotypes and unabashedly alight a whole album full of intensely felt feelings and land five GRAMMY nominations for it. Unfortunately, the politics of the music industry do play a factor in determining the winner of titles like Album of the Year, but if the overall quality of a complete album was the sole deciding factor in naming an Album of the Year, the record would undoubtedly take the prize.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: FULLY OBSESSED

GRAMMY Nominees: Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey has had an underrated impact on the music industry, from popularizing "sad girl bops" to being one of those female artists who reinvents her sound over and over again. Lana has racked up her most GRAMMY nominations ever in 2024, with her second nod in the Album of the Year category (and side note: Lana not only is nominated herself in this category, but she serves as a featured artist on not one, but two other albums nominated in the Album of the Year category). Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd, her tenth studio album, is her most ambitious endeavor yet.

Stand-out tracks:"Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" "Let The Light In (feat. Father John Misty)" "Taco Truck x VB"

My favorites: "Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he's deep-sea fishing (feat. RIOPY)" "Margaret (feat. Bleachers)" "Fishtail"

Opening track "The Grants" and title-track "Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd" shine with storytelling, stunning production, and the raw vocals that distinguish Lana Del Rey from any other artist. The vocal layering and instrumental production on the title-track is classic and simply stunning. The piano instrumental on "Sweet" is simple, resounding, and beautifully complementary to Lana's vocals reaching into ranges we don't often hear from her-- this one is understated, yet romantic.

"A&W" pulls back from the momentum of the beginning of the album, but it continues the album trademarks of stunning instrumentals, creative-yet-complementary production, and classic Lana Del Rey vocals. It also clocks in at a whopping seven minutes and 13 seconds, transitioning from slow-paced and whispery to synthy and boppy around the five and a half minute mark. If you didn't know by this point in the album, "Judah Smith Interlude" proves that this album is meant to tell a story and invoke a feeling, with its spoken sermon about the power of infatuation that is interspersed with Lana's commentary as if she were one of a crowd of listeners. This feels like the conclusion of the A-side of the album.

"Candy Necklace (feat. Jon Batiste)" enters the album's minor, darker-sounding part. If you've heard a track from Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd out in the world, it was likely this one. Fellow-Album of the Year nominee Jon Batiste provides a stunning, jazzy piano instrumental that pairs with Lana's vocal line singing the repeated "You've been actin' pretty restless/Dancin' like the young and restless/And I'm obsessed with it."

"Kintsugi" is a beautiful piano ballad that illustrates the desires of escapism in the face of challenges, with softly sung and incredibly effect repetitive "That's how the light gets in." "Paris, Texas (feat. SYML)" is another twinkly, simple piano track illustrating the conflicting emotions of leaving the place that you once called home.

The album thematically turns more hopeful and sonically opens a little wider with "Grandfather please stand on the shoulders of my father while he's deep sea fishing (feat. RIOPY)." This one is more alt-pop, imploring that Lana is searching for the light amongst the dark:"But I have good intentions if even I'm one of the last ones/If you don't believe me, my poetry and my melodies/Feel it in your bones." The following "Let the Light In (feat. Father John Misty)" continues the search for light and searches for the beauty of human moments ("Put The Beatles on, light the candles, go back to bed/'Cause I wanna, wanna, wanna want you") with plucky acoustics and supple drums that complement the vocal duet. The collaboration with producer Jack Antonoff's Bleachers for "Margaret (feat. Bleachers)" achieves one of the most personalized and heart-warming romantic love songs I've come across in recent years, which tends to be out of character for an artist like Lana.

"Fishtail" and "Peppers (feat. Tommy Genesis)" pick up the conclusion of Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd with clever hooks and beat-heavier instrumentals, before the credits roll with groovy "Taco Truck x VB." This is the perfect conclusion to the album, with that classic-yet-spiced-up-a-bit production, suburban romance lyrics (where Lana refers to herself as "your little Venice bitch" yet again, after naming a track on NFR! "Venice Bitch"), and that harmonious, reverberant sad-girl nuance we all know and love from Lana Del Rey.

GRAMMY for Album of the Year

Lana Del Rey is undoubtedly an artist who has made an impact on the music industry since her debut well over a decade ago. Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd is one of her most creative and unique albums to date, with classic-yet-modernized production, creative interludes, and lyrical themes of humanizing and personal storytelling. This album doesn't quite have the classic hits of albums like 2012's Born to Die or poppy addiction of album like 2019's Norman F***ing Rockwell! or classic-Tumblr-era sad-rock of 2014's Ultraviolence. It does lag a little bit in the middle, but in avoiding the classic album structure and constraints of genres, Lana Del Rey has created something experimental, honest, and completely original. It's success lies in its embrace of imperfection, which unfortunately takes it out of the race amongst the nominees for Album of the Year. However, I hope that Lana's long-standing influence on the Alternative genre and an incredible B-side of Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd results in her finally taking home her first GRAMMY with a win in the Alternative Album category.

AM I OBSESSED?

RATING: OBSESSED WITH SOME TRACKS