SZA Hypnotizes on “Moodring”

SZA returns with "Moodring," her first song since releasing the excellent Z earlier this year, and the first lady of TDE and her frequent collaborator Felix Snow get even more nebulous and blissed-out here. The polarizing feature of SZA's music is the sense of hazy drift, which almost overtakes her voice. We'd argue that that's the point, making her vocals just one of several textures to explore in the songs, but critics felt her hooks (and personality) get lost in the haze. And on "Moodring," it sounds like SZA heard those critiques and decided to go even further in that direction, with her breathy chants swaying underneath a dense fog of chimes, looped samples, and cymbal crashes.

The result is beautifully hypnotic and heady, a midpoint between chillwave and R&B that you can get lost in while simmering in the heat. The track is off Kitty Cash's Love The Free II mixtape, a progressive R&B compilation which also features Dev Hynes, Yuna, and Empress Of. It's out July 22.

[via Billboard]