The Meaning Behind SZA and Phoebe Bridgers’ Grammy-Nominated “Ghost in the Machine”

For the upcoming 2024 Grammy Awards, SZA leads all artists with the most nominations at nine. One of these is for the Best Pop Duo-Group Performance, where her song “Ghost in the Machine,” featuring boygenius star Phoebe Bridgers, is a nominee.

“Ghost in the Machine,” No. 12 on the track list of SZA’s Grammy-nominated, December 2022 album, SOS, serves as the first-ever collaboration between SZA and Bridgers.

“That record is insane. She just hit me up. She just sent me a DM, and then it all happened so fast,” Bridgers said about the creation of the song in an interview with NME last December. “I wasn’t really used to that in that pop world, because vinyl isn’t so much of a consideration until way later. It’s just like, ‘Do you want to be on this record? OK, it’s out next week.’ It was so recent, which I really like. I like that turnaround time. Personally, I sit on stuff for so long and it takes me years to make albums. I like seeing someone else’s world from that angle.”

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Along with this quick “turnaround time,” the nature of Bridgers’ contribution to the song sees her bring a piece of her artistry onto the track, rather than assimilating her sound into SZA’s R&B approach. For most of the track, SZA smoothly croons about the disheartening taste in the music industry. As she notices the growing influence of artificial intelligence on the pop landscape, evident in the Robot got future, I don’t lyric, she looks to her lover to distract her from her worrisome reality.

Can you distract me from all the disaster?
Can you touch on me and not call me after?
Can you hate on me and mask it with laughter?
Can you lead me to the ark? What’s the password?

Then, when Bridgers comes in for the song’s third verse, the once mellow and blissful production transitions to a solemn piano, where Bridgers sings her relationship issues as if they were a church hymn.

You said all of my friends are on my payroll
You’re not wrong, you’re an asshole
Screaming at you in the Ludlow
I was yours for free
I don’t get existential
I just think about myself and look where that got me
Standin’ on my own in an airport bar or hotel lobby
Waiting to feel clean
That’s so fucking boring

As it turns out, this contrast was according to plan. SZA explained to Alternative Press how she always knew she wanted to have another artist featured on the song, and wanted it to be “someone with a conversational approach to their music.”

“I didn’t think that [Bridgers] would come to the studio, let alone actually get on the song, so I was shocked,” she said. “She was so fucking nice, and we had the best time — she’s hilarious. […] She downplayed it even when she was done. She was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know. ’ I was like, ‘This is incredible. You’re insane.’ But she’s just great.”

Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for The Webby Awards