Check out this three-note sequence in the chorus of SZA’s F2F (2022).
It’s an unusual contour. It sounds familiar. In Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer (1999), those same three notes are played on accordion. (Transposed to match.)
F2F also has a bendy whistling synth line, timbrally similar to the Kiss Me accordion. Both riffs
- follow the chorus
- are accompanied by softer percussion than the preceding chorus
- consist mostly of the scale degrees 2, 3, and 5
So what?
Does this prove that SZA was thinking of Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer while she wrote this song? No. But on an album that also alludes musically to Coldplay and Radiohead, it’s not out of the question.
Strike up the band
I Googled “kiss me sixpence sza” to see if anyone else had thought of this. And someone has:
I found out SZA performed Kiss Me in concert six times in 2019. “That song just makes me happy as fuck and I really wish it was ’98 right now,” she said.
F2F: a song about seeking a substitute for something you miss.