It only took an extra 15 hours, but SZA finally delivered. Her project LANA, technically a deluxe expanded edition of her 2022 album SOS, is available to stream now. The project adds 15 new tracks to her existing LP—the length of some individual albums—including a new collaboration with Kendrick Lamar called "30 For 30" ahead of their co-headlining tour this spring.
Any SZA fan who hoped that LANA would arrive at midnight may be a little disappointed by the lateness, but likely not surprised. Yes, the singer did say explicitly this week that the album would be out on Friday, and music does tend to drop the minute it becomes the next day (on the East Coast, anyway). But SZA is famously a world-class procrastinator, spending five years to craft her followup to 2017’s breakthrough album CTRL.
So midnight came, but the album didn’t. It seems SZA herself just turned in the music this week, and people were working round the clock on engineering and mixing to get it streaming-ready, if her Instagram story is any indication. “FULL DELUXE OUT TOMORROW AM . ON THE 20TH!” she posted when the album was expected, in between memes of crows smoking cigarettes and photos of food. By 1 pm, the album still hadn’t arrived, wiping out the “tomorrow am” promise. (Maybe she meant Pacific Time, but hey, who were we to believe this next promise?) Around 1:30, her producer Punch issued a mea culpa on Twitter/X, and promised the 3 pm ET release time. In this case, he was accurate.
12pm. It’s my fault.
— Punch TDE (@iamstillpunch) December 20, 2024
This all being said, SZA did pull off one feat on time: her music video for “Drive.” The artist teased the clip, which stars Ben Stiller, earlier this week. The full video is here, and you can check that out below.
