See.SZA.Run

Background

After secondary school, Rowe attended three separate colleges, in her freshman year she "got high and failed out". Rowe went to college to study a major in marine biology, with the intention to go to "grad school" in order to be a scientist and travel, the plan never accumulated and she began to do "random jobs" in order to make money. SZA first met members of Top Dawg Entertainment during the CMJ 2011, when her boyfriend's clothing company sponsored a show in which Kendrick Lamar was performing. A friend attending the show with her foisted early SZA songs onto TDE president Terrence "Punch" Henderson, who liked the material and stayed in touch.

SZA describes the process of recording for her EP as being “experimental,” without having a larger goal in mind. SZA first began recording music by accident, after recording one song she continued the process until she decided she should "something out of it." SZA recorded the songs with her friend and neighbor in which they "stole a bunch of beats off the Internet." The extended play featured production from brandUn DeShay, APSuperProducer, amongst others. After taking beats from Brandun DeShay it led SZA to begin actually working with DeShay.

Music and lyrics

See.SZA.Run has a diverse musical style that incorporates contemporary urban genres such as soul, hip hop, and minimalist R&B. The EP also takes influences from cloud rap and ethereal R&B as well as using witch house and chillwave elements. The production is characterized as being built over billowing synths, bombing bass and crushed beats.

The EP opens with the song "Bed", which was compared the work of American singer Ciara. Euphraxia is a "future hip-hop" song described as being a "waxing esoteric about existentialism and the like, searching for answers over a clipped clatter." "Time Travel Undone" was described as a mixture of "Björk-Beyoncé" that is musically "a new kind of avant-jazz pop: unorthodox and untrammeled, yet accessible enough for repeat plays. Her track "Country" is a blues and soul song described by the guardian as being from "Venus and Mars".

"Crack Dreams" lyrically discusses the necessity for the titular narcotic, and is built over a "tranquilizing bleepscape" production. "Once Upon a High" closes the EP. The song was described as a "superb quality and distinction and introduces an artist with a vision singular enough to demand everyone's attention, not just those waiting for R&B to ascend to the next level."

Reception

Upon its release, the extended play was met with critical acclaim from music critics. Complex commended the album, noting it for being "made for multiple listens", and praised the album's production, saying "each song flows together perfectly and succinctly". Paul Lester from The Guardian praised the album, noting similarities between SZA and Drake, The Weeknd, Miguel and Frank Ocean, calling SZA the female version of the singers. Lester also praised the album's title, names, and lyrical content calling the lyrics "inscrutable, adding to the atmosphere of pleasant torpor/stupor".

Track listing

All songs were written by Solana Rowe.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Soundcloud.