SZA Ctrl 2LP (Vinyl)

2018 Stereophile Magazine Record to Die For!
One of Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2017!

2018 Grammy Award Nominee:
• Best R&B Performance: "The Weekend"
• Best R&B Song: "Supermodel"
• Best Urban Contemporary Album: Ctrl
• Best Rap/Sung Performance: "Love Galore"

Ctrl (pronounced "control") is the debut studio album by singer-songwriter SZA. It was released on June 9, 2017. Originally scheduled for release in late 2015, it was delayed by SZA's experience of "a kind of blinding paralysis brought on by anxiety." She worked and reworked the album until the record company took away her hard drive in the spring of 2017. SZA wrote most of the album's lyrics and collaborated with producers including Craig Balmoris, Frank Dukes, Carter Lang, Scum and ThankGod4Cody to achieve its sound. The efforts resulted in a primarily neo-soul and R&B album, with elements of hip-hop, electronic, indie and soul. Lyrically the album has a confessional theme, which touches upon SZA's personal experiences and complexities of modern love, including desire, competition, jealousy, sexual politics, social media and low self-esteem. The album was released to acclaim from music critics. It debuted at number three on the US Billboard 200 and generated the singles "Drew Barrymore", "Love Galore", "The Weekend", and "Broken Clocks".

SZA entered the music scene in 2012 with her first critically acclaimed EP, See.SZA.Run. Following that, she released S in 2013 and Z in 2014, both to rave reviews. In 2013, SZA signed to Top Dawg Entertainment, being the first female artist to join the label. SZA wrote and performed on Rihanna's Anti Single "Consideration" in 2016 and helped write Nicki Minaj and Beyonce's "Feelin Myself" in 2014. She's featured on tracks by Rihanna, Felix Snow, Schoolboy Q, Wale, DRAM and more.

The album title CTRL comes from her thoughts on growing up & coming into her own, figuring out what she has control of and does not. CTRL features guests Kendrick Lamar, Isaiah Rashad, and Travis Scott. The LP version includes two 150-gram vinyl records and a download insert in a gatefold sleeve.

"After a trio of promising EPs and a prominent feature on Rihanna's Anti, the budding alt-R&B star showed what she could do on a full-length LP. SZA unravels through largely improvised meditations on love and sex and all the promise and abandonment that can result from both. From a side-chick manifesto ('The Weekend') to the appreciation of a rom-com icon that mulls the singer's own self-worth ('Drew Barrymore'), SZA flourishes in her own hazy spotlight." - Rolling Stone, 50 Best Albums of 2017

"The long-awaited debut from the Jersey singer is an opulent, raw R&B album that constantly tests the borders of the genre. SZA's deeply personal lens on modern romance gives these songs endless life." - Pitchfork

"With Ctrl, SZA proves that the cult following that ballooned with the release of her 2014 mixtape, Z, was not some flash in the pan, but a deserved wellspring of attention from an adoring fan base whose faith in what she had yet to produce helped to produce the project that could eventually stand as the best thing she has ever done." - Consequence Of Sound

"Ctrl's strength is how it doesn't strive to be one thing over the other. It effortlessly winds between narratives and genres like it's child's play. This isn't a star in the making, it's a fully-fledged talent who's practically showing off." - NME

SZA is Solana Rowe, and her voice makes a complete mess of me. Compelled to sing along, I soon learn I can't hold on to the sudden turns, can't reach the highs or lows, can't match the depth of emotion. Still, I feel it all... This music is the suffocating heat of summer, the shock of the coldest winter - absolutely vibrant and wholly alive, nothing spring or fall about it.

Features:
• Double LP
• Gatefold jacket
• Limited time download insert
• Explicit content

Selections:
LP 1
Side 1:
1. Supermodel
2. Love Galore (feat. Travis Scott)
3. Doves In The Wind (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
4. Drew Barrymore
Side 2:
1. Prom
2. The Weekend
3. Go Gina
4. Garden (Say It Like Dat)
LP 2
Side 1:
1. Broken Clocks
2. Anything
3. Wavy (Interlude) [feat. James Faunterloy]
Side 2:
1. Normal Girl
2. Pretty Little Birds (feat. Isaiah Rashad)
3. 20 Something