Ctrl Alt Resistance : SZA and The Expression of Female Vulnerability

By Valentina Ronzoni

SZA Image from Instagram (@sza)

SZA (Solana Imani Rowe) has taken the world by storm with the release of her two albums Ctrl (2017) and SOS (2022). Her mature sound, blending R&B, neo-soul, and hip-hop, reaches out to a misunderstood, underrepresented female youth of the 21st century. Winning the best album of 2022 (Rolling Stone), and charting for 38 weeks at no1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, it’s safe to say she has a talent in communicating vulnerability and relatability in her lyrics and melodies.

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Ctrl is the former album that explores young womanhood and navigates tabooed themes such as jealousy and insecurity. SOS, her sophomore release, embraces these feelings, directing the self and ego onto a path of peace in uncertainty. Lyrically, her work is heavily influenced by her Islamic upbringing, incorporated not only in her name but also in her lyrics. Accompanied by her spiritual beliefs and biblical imagery that she often references; alluding to a desire for transcendence in her music and a separation from societal, manufactured norms. She uses her musicality to create space for young women exhausted of forcing themselves to adhere to these standards.

SZA image by Spotify. All rights reserved.

Emotionally raw and sonically unpredictable, Ctrl resembles a diary cracked open. Supermodel, the opening track of Ctrl, sets the scene for her description of the typical relation between young women and their control on the world. A raw, real snippet of her mothers voice introduces control as something essential: ‘If I lost control… things would be fatal”. To the singer, and many a woman alike, control is a concept both impossible to hold and live without. It offers safety and validation, yet it’s constantly slipping away. Without it, she falls into despair, self comparison, and hatred.

"Drew Barrymore" and "Normal Girl" are equally well received singles on the album, which delve deeper into these themes. Lyrics from the former like “She's perfect and I hate it”//“I'm sorry I'm not more ladylike…” powerfully illustrate the pressure created by the social archetype of being “ladylike” and “perfect”. Referencing expectations that are directly catered to women, she expresses a socially gendered frustration and bitterness. The latter, "Normal Girl”, echoes the practically inevitable longing of women to blend and morph into the construct of “normality”. Young women can relate to how she depicts the feeling of alienation and self consciousness in a male centric world.

Photograph by Daniel Sannwald, courtesy of Instagram (@danielsannwald).

In SOS, SZA sounds freer. The composer is no longer trying to fix herself, but emphasising her attempt to exist in imperfection and acceptance. The songwriter shares experience from her early twenties, and voices a change in her desires. The tracks no longer relay a pressured, overwhelmed calamity, but rather seek a release from the chains of her former self that bound her to her old ways. In "Far", she asks: “How do I deal with rejection?”, while in "Blind" she responds with the clarity that a secure, stable love from within, that can truly open your eyes from the blinding fear of rejection and imperfection. She explores a rollercoaster of emotions from rage and desire, to fear and hope. But this time, she is unapologetically expressing her emotions as they come, without condemning or sugarcoating them. Fans listening to this music can likewise accept their flaws, and raw feeling, without needing to conceal or suppress their identity or emotions.

In an age-old culture that demands perfection from women, intensified by blurred boundaries between virtual and physical reality that online media creates, Ctrl and SOS are more relevant than ever. Ctrl and SOS give a voice to young women who opt to resist these patriarchal, impossible standards. SZA’s music teaches a new generation not to let self-doubt obscure their worth, but to embrace the flaws and contradictions that make us human. Messiness, insecurities and confusion are part of a process that SZA normalises in the process of navigating a fulfilled lifestyle of freedom. Her music reassures listeners that the we, as humans and women, can be unplanned, unprepared, uncertain, yet still beautiful in our imperfection.