SZA’s Dreamy Trip to ‘Saturn’ Is Our Song of the Week

Consequence’s Song of the Week highlights the latest and greatest new tracks each week. Find these new favorites and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, SZA sends it up to the cosmos.

A Saturn Return only happens once every 30 years or so — 29.5, for the astrology-focused among us. What SZA in particular seems to understand in her new song, “Saturn,” is that once someone lives long enough to experience their own Saturn Return, change is bound to occur.

The song is glittery and dreamy, transportive and meditative, all qualities that often coalesce to create a SZA track. But despite the tranquil atmosphere she conjures, there’s deep sadness woven into the lyrics. SZA has found herself in existential crisis: “None of this matters,” she laments. “This can’t be life.”

“Saturn” is SZA’s quest to “find something worth saving.” She’s sick of spending time with herself, and sick of the mundanity of heartache. The Grammy winner points out that consequences never seem to reach the people who deserve them most, and instead the “good die young and poor.”

When it all comes together, “Saturn” is a very SZA-appropriate take on the many moral crises of modern life — and it’s the depth here, particularly when it comes to how atmospheric and immersive the song is, that reminds us why she’s carved out such a unique space for herself. For SZA, a journey through the stars can be as nihilistic as it is sparkling. Buckle up, because it’s likely her musical universe will just keep growing more and more vast.

— Mary Siroky
Associate Editor