Ghost in the Machine (song)

Last updated

"Ghost in the Machine"
Song by SZA featuring Phoebe Bridgers
from the album SOS
Written2022
ReleasedDecember 9, 2022 (2022-12-09)
Recorded2022
Genre
Length3:38
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Rob Bisel
  • Carter Lang
Lyric video
"Ghost in the Machine" on YouTube

"Ghost in the Machine" is a song by American singer-songwriter SZA from her second studio album, SOS (2022), featuring guest vocals by singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers. It won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 66th ceremony.

Contents

Background

SZA released her debut studio album, Ctrl , in 2017. Primarily an R&B album that deals with themes like heartbreak, it received widespread acclaim for SZA's vocal performance, the musical style, as well as the songwriting. The album brought SZA to mainstream fame, and critics credit it with establishing her status as a major figure in contemporary pop and R&B music and pushing the boundaries of the R&B genre. [note 1]

From April to May 2022, SZA told media outlets that she had recently finished the album in Hawaii and said that it was coming soon. [7] Wanting to experiment with genres she had not yet incorporated in her discography, she envisioned it to be an amalgamation of various disparate musical styles: "a little bit of everything". While some tracks had an "aggressive" sound, certain others were balladic, soft, or heartfelt. [8] Apart from the "traditional" R&B that had been a staple of SZA's past works, the album also contained elements of "acoustic singer-songwriter" music. [1] [9]

During the build-up to the album's release, SZA created a list of possible collaborators for the album. The roster included artists like Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar. [10] Of the several more artists she contacted, only three people sent their verses: Don Toliver, Travis Scott, and Phoebe Bridgers. [11] Toliver and Scott appear in the tracks "Used" and "Open Arms", [note 2] respectively, while Bridgers contributed vocals for "Ghost in the Machine". [12] [13] When interviewed for Rolling Stone in November 2022, Bridgers spoke highly of SZA; she recalled that the two musicians bonded over topics such as "astrology and anger and healthy boundaries", and praised her for her authenticity and songwriting capabilities. [14]

Music and production

Phoebe Bridgers at Surly Brewing Festival Field in Minneapolis, MN.jpg
SZA CTRL Tour Toronto 2017 8 (cropped).jpg
Phoebe Bridgers (left) collaborated with SZA for "Ghost in the Machine".

Having been categorized as an R&B artist throughout her career, which she believed was because she was a Black woman, [15] SZA sought to prove her musical versatility and combine the R&B sound that had been a staple of her past works [16] [17] with a diverse set of other genres and soundscapes. [18] "Super alternative and strange" was how she described "Ghost in the Machine", [19] and she told Hot 97's Nessa that it was not "going to sound like how people think it's gonna sound". [20]

"Ghost in the Machine" is a midtempo ballad, [21] featuring a stringed and simple [22] electronic production. [23] SZA's voice, as described by Ken Tucker for NPR Music, "snake[s] in and around the melody" and "bends and breaks with hopelessness". [24] She harmonizes her vocals with Bridgers' to match each other's vocal timbres, [22] [25] and they deliver their verses breathily. [26] [27] Critics described the song as an intersection between SZA's R&B style and Bridgers' alternative, indie pop style; [28] [29] NPR Music directly called the song indie pop, [30] while John Amen of Beats Per Minute surmised the song's construction as being rooted in "sad-girl pop". [31] Writing for The Saturday Paper , Shaad D'Souza described the song as "quietly haunting", "wide-eyed", and "ultraliteral". [32]

The making of "Ghost in the Machine" began in 2022 with a drum loop by Matt Cohn, credited as an additional producer in the liner notes, followed by piano and keyboard notes from Rob Bisel; [33] the two latter instruments were acquired by Bisel within a week of "Ghost in the Machine" and "Kill Bill" being written, and he stated that both songs were partly inspired by his experimentation with "new toy[s]". [34] Joined by Carter Lang, Bisel worked on improving and overhauling the tracks before showing the demo for SZA, a few days after recording another SOS track, "Blind". At the middle of the demo was an open instrumental section, where Bisel thought singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers would fit, so he suggested a feature from her to SZA, to which SZA agreed. [33]

While Bisel was trying to make the feature happen through his publisher, [33] SZA personally contacted Bridgers through online messages in their first interaction together. [35] The turnaround time for completing "Ghost in the Machine" was fast. [36] Bridgers came to the studio for sessions a week or two after being asked to feature, [33] recording her vocals a week before the album's scheduled release. [37] She at first wanted to provide background harmonies only, but she received encouragement from Bisel and the others to record a full verse. They liked her first take and kept it for the final song, almost identical except for some cut-out parts. [33]

Lyrics

Similar to other SOS tracks like "Snooze" and "Kill Bill", writing "Ghost in the Machine" was a spontaneous feat; it took SZA 20 to 30 minutes to write her verses. [33] The lyrics are written in a conversational style [38] and primarily explores feelings of disillusionment, which come in part from experiencing excessive negativity on the Internet. [39] SZA told Alternative Press that she was motivated to write the song out of exhaustion around the constant fighting between people on Internet spaces such as Instagram over morality, which she believed was at the expense of meaningful connections: "I feel like there's so much debate about what's good, what's bad, what's this, what's that?" [38]

"Ghost in the Machine" explores SZA's contempt for the music industry "machine" she finds herself in. [40] She feels almost controlled and manipulated by external forces. She looks towards her partner to offer her an escape from her situation, even if it is just temporary. The song discusses the impact of technology and the superficiality of modern society. The lyrics revolve around the loss of authentic connections. Several lines speak on the disconnection of modern relationships calling out self-centeredness and lack of empathy. It also suggests her frustration with the pressure that is associated with fame. SZA illuminates love and compassion as the fundamentals of society in her song. "Ghost in the Machine" challenges listeners to embrace their humanity and find consolation in meaningful, authentic interactions. [41]

Bridgers's verse begins with the lyric, "You said all my friends are on my payroll/You're not wrong, you're an asshole", which Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote was evocative of "tension clearly compounded by fame and success". [42] Angie Martoccio of Rolling Stone connected the lyric to a statement from Bridgers about eliminating negativity in her circles by "hir[ing her] best friends" as part of her crew. [14] A few lines from Bridgers's verse allude to an argument, which People perceived to be about her then-boyfriend, the Irish actor Paul Mescal. [43]

Release

During a Billboard cover story published in November 2022, SZA revealed the album title, as well as the release date which was scheduled sometime the following month. [44] She posted the album's track list on Twitter on December 5, 2022, and SOS was released four days later. Out of 23 songs, "Ghost in the Machine" appears as the 12th track. [45] [46] It peaked at number 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, [47] becoming Bridgers' first top 40 song in the United States, [48] and appeared on the national charts in Canada, Australia, and Portugal. [note 3] On the Billboard Global 200, the song peaked at number 52. [49]

"Ghost in the Machine" had its live performance debut on March 4, 2023, at the Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of a North American tour in support of SOS. Bridgers appeared as the concert's surprise guest, who joined SZA in performing her verse. [50] [51]

Critical reception

Critics primarily focused on whether SZA and Bridgers fitted together on the song, and many praised their efforts as successful despite their different musical styles. [52] [53] Time 's Andrew R. Chow wrote that "Ghost in the Machine" was the best collaboration on SOS, reasoning that the feature was bound to work because the two musicians' discographies overlap significantly in terms of subject matter, which prevented an "awkward" genre crossover for Bridgers: "it has often felt like the two of them are anxious, horny Spider-Men pointing at each other from across the genre-verse." [29] The Saturday Paper praised the collaboration as a "smart match". [32] Others commented that the sound, while unexpected in the context of the album, was nonetheless cohesive and polished. [54] [55]

There were some critics less appreciative of the album's themes and guest feature. Rolling Stone's Will Dukes considered the exploration of artificial intelligence a contrived effort akin to a " Black Mirror trope about the AI Art Generator". CJ Thorpe-Tracey for The Quietus felt that Bridgers appeared only to give SZA a "magic indie countercultural 'good for business' aura", adding that his annoyance was compounded by how she had had too many guest appearances on others' albums within the same year. [56]

The most nominated artist at the 2024 Grammy Awards, SZA received nine nominations for her work on SOS and its tracks, including "Ghost in the Machine". [57] The song won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award, marking Bridgers' first Grammys win. [note 4] [59]

Credits

Recording and management

Personnel

Note

  1. ↑ Appears courtesy of Dead Oceans

Charts

Weekly charts

Weekly chart performance for "Ghost in the Machine"
Chart (2022)Peak
position
Australia (ARIA) [60] 72
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [61] 51
Global 200 ( Billboard ) [49] 67
Portugal (AFP) [62] 121
UK Audio Streaming (OCC) [63] 96
US Billboard Hot 100 [47] 40
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs ( Billboard ) [64] 24

Year-end charts

Year-end chart performance for "Ghost in the Machine"
Chart (2023)Position
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard) [65] 65

Certifications

Certifications for "Ghost in the Machine"
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [66] Gold20,000‡
Canada (Music Canada) [67] Platinum80,000‡
United States (RIAA) [68] Platinum1,000,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Notes

  1. ↑ Cited to Vulture , [2] The Line of Best Fit , [3] NME , [4] The Daily Telegraph , [5] and Consequence . [6]
  2. ↑ Also in "Low" as background vocals
  3. ↑ See the charts section for the exact peaks.
  4. ↑ As a member of Boygenius, Bridgers additionally won Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance for "Not Strong Enough" and Best Alternative Music Album for The Record . [58]

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  47. 1 2 "SZA Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
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  49. 1 2 "SZA Chart History (Global 200)". Billboard. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
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