Believe it or not, it’s been five years since SZA graced the world with her debut studio LP Ctrl, which came with 14 dope cuts and assists from Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, James Fauntleroy, and Isaiah Rashad. The project became a huge critical and commercial success for both SZA and Top Dawg Entertainment, landing the New Jersey songstress at the number three spot on the Billboard 200 before spending a whopping 260 weeks on the same chart. The project has also since crossed the double Platinum mark and spawned classic singles like “Love Galore,” “The Weekend,” and “Broken Clocks.”
Today (June 9), SZA and TDE have decided to celebrate Ctrl‘s fifth-year anniversary with a deluxe upgrade, which comes with seven additional songs that, as the singer revealed, were recorded between 2014 and 2017. One of the seven is an alternative version of “Love Galore” that comes with a new verse from SZA, further adding to the song’s original themes about past love and regret:
“Give good, but you lie hard and you love ’em, but you stay hard and I love that, so I let you hang it for a bit, kick it with yo’ friends, get yo’ ego tight, oh, you faded? Good, freaky for the night, shit it all depend on you, it’s been a minute since I wil’d out, feelin’ wide open, like why? Why give a bum nigga like three minutes?”
Since the release of Ctrl, SZA has teased a sophomore album in a variety of ways, including via loose cuts like “Passport,” “Hit Different,” “Good Days,” “Nightbird,” “Joni,” and “I Hate U.” She’s also contributed her talents to a slew of big moments in entertainment (including the Lamar-backed soundtrack for the Marvel film Black Panther) and collaborated with the likes of Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Post Malone, Justin Timberlake, and Megan Thee Stallion.
Press play on Ctrl (Deluxe) below.