It’s sitting right there in the middle of SZA’s “Woman of the Year” interview with Billboard: A “deluxe edition” of her blockbuster second album “SOS” featuring “10 additional tracks” is “coming soon,” with no further details. While SZA had mentioned in previous interviews that a deluxe edition was in the works, it literally took her five years to release a deluxe version of her 2017 debut, “Ctrl” — however it appears this one will be coming much sooner.
Contacted by Variety, a rep for RCA, SZA’s label, had no further information — and considering that “SOS” already packs 23 tracks into a surprisingly not-overlong 68 minutes, it’s already got plenty of substance. However, it’s not hard to guess what some of the tracks might be.
In a Rolling Stone podcast interview just after the album’s release in December, SZA said that her management team gave a thumbs-down to such songs as “PSA,” Boy From South Detroit” and “Joni” — both of which have been circulating on the internet for some time.
“A song called ‘Boy From South Detroit’ that Twitter wanted really bad, [neither managers] Rob nor Punch really cared about that song,” SZA said. “They weren’t excited about it and Rob was just like, ‘I don’t really think this is the song.’ And then Punch was indifferent about the song, but I was like, ‘No, I really believe in this!’” SZA then says that the song is will be on a future deluxe edition of the album.
As for her tribute to Joni Mitchell, she says, “Punch was like, ‘This song has been out for years! And no one wants to hear songs that were out for years. Everyone wants to hear new songs from you.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ Of course that’s a song they’re asking for on the internet.”
SZA’s North American tour in support of the album, with support from Omar Apollo, opened on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio, and is scheduled to wrap in Los Angeles on March 22.