Every single from SOS, bar "Shirt", reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100—"Good Days", "I Hate U", "Nobody Gets Me", the chart-topping "Kill Bill", and "Snooze".

With her sense of humor, vulnerability, and ability to craft purposeful and monumental songs, SZA is one of the most down-to-earth musicians today. The singer released three singles from ‘SOS’ ahead of its release – ‘Good Days’ in 2020, ‘I Hate U’ in 2021 and ‘Shirt’ in October of this year – and debuted album cut ‘Blind’ during a Saturday Night Live appearance last weekend.Her alternative slow jams pushed her voice to the fore and laid bare all the quirks of her dating life, establishing her as a distinguished millennial anecdotalist in the process. To promote the album, SZA embarked on a North American and European arena tour, the SOS Tour, from February to October 2023. Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Andy Kellman compared it favourably to SZA's previous album; "Hour-plus length and stylistic variety likewise signal that SOS could be the overreaching kind of highly anticipated follow-up. SOS debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart with 318,000 equivalent album units sold and stayed at the top for ten non-consecutive weeks, making as the longest running number one album by a female artist on the chart for the current decade. And the sacrifice (and labor) is evident from the jump; it’s there in the first few bars of each bop (as evidenced on “Prom,” which opens with lean vocals, whose controlled pathos is palpable).

Her stage name is derived from the letters of the Supreme Alphabet, according to which the letter "S" stands for Self and Savior. SZA approached him out of her admiration for his decades-long history of production work, which included songs with Brandy and Amerie. Throughout the journey of SOS, there are moments of clarity and tenderness where SZA goes through the discomfort of healing while trying to find the deeper meaning within the trials and tribulations she endures. SZA’s vulnerability and raw honesty, coupled with ultra-relatable lyrics full of diary-like ruminations and conversations from friend group chats, are what made her debut so impactful.This isn’t the only song that shows her weariness towards relationships that no longer serve her; see also “Smoking on My Ex Pack” and “Far”. When SZA collaborated with Cosmopolitan for their February 2021 issue, she talked about the emotions she expected to feel while making the album. His full length debut on Daptone Records is equal parts raw feeling and elegance and exudes confidence and charm.

SZA has confirmed that the cover art for her new album, ‘SOS’, was inspired by a photo of Princess Diana.Compared to his work on Ctrl, for which he helped produce four songs, his approach to SOS was less defined and more experimental.

By the time SOS was released, many publications had already released their respective year-end best-of album lists. The first leg of the SOS Tour consisted of shows across 17 cities in Canada and the United States, [83] and Omar Apollo was announced to be the opening act. In an interview with Hot 97, SZA confirmed the theory and explained that for this album cover she wanted to encapture the feeling of loneliness that Diana’s photo has. She added that some parts of the song had an "aggressive" sound whereas others were soft or balladic. The album features guest appearances from Don Toliver, Phoebe Bridgers, Travis Scott, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard.The jarring shifts in mood are true-blue maturing-millennial thoughts, a testament to a world where nobody gets a storybook ending. Revenge is the bedrock of SZA’s second album – she’s out for blood, and ex-boyfriends are the target.