Dynamic enough for an artist to progress but rooted enough to stay familiar, the markings of Weightless and Blades bring Arlo Parks into the forefront of music relaxants for another year.
OVERVIEW
Now keep in mind, this is not the “go for broke” debut artist Arlo Parks now. This is the studious Mercury Prize-winning artist and LA-resident Arlo Parks we’re talking about. An artist refined to the taste of her sound and her evergrowing success.
In anything, her follow-up to Collapsed in Sunbeams is more of the same pollinated loose-funk indie-pop; but sees Arlo learn the art of patience when it comes to songwriting, taking a passive stride by letting the songs come to her – as opposed to forcing the will to write.
Seemingly spoilt for choice in honorary California – where else can you eat impossible burgers on a whim with Thundercat post-show – Arlo Parks’ My Soft Machine is a deeply personal narration into Parks’ heady navigations of her 20s. Above all else, it seems that she’s overcome the fateful curse of the second album, taking a more subtle step in what makes Arlo Arlo – without thinking too much into it.
SONG to SONG
Ethereal synth waves, woozy drum machines bring together a nocturnal album that’s more dynamic than its first. The first sliver of new Arlo comes about with Impurities. Leading with a brazen oriental motif, starry-eyed Arlo brings home lyrical tenderness to feeling comfortable around someone new, ineffective to the impurities that need filtering out of the air, “You’re the rainbow in my soap / You notice beauty in more forms than most,” and because of that, she can radiate the intended way. Even if that makes Arlo a bobble head… like a star, star, star…
The deviation into Devotion is certainly most welcomed, too. While the trope to pop-punk is almost stagnated beyond belief from synth-pop, it’s a side we haven’t seen from Arlo – and it seems she wears it well, especially with the new brazen red hair. The chugging guitars are met with a surprise matched with otherwise wispy lyrics, “Come down like a million tonnes / All yours, baby / Flood me with your nervous love.“
Parks’ observation from busy Sunday coffee shops and dog parks on Collapsed in Sunbeams come back through a particularly sharper lens on swampy dance adventure, Blades, as an afterthought from an argument at a party as she swoons towards to her girlfriend, fellow artiste Ashnikko, “I just miss your voice, say you’ve been alright / Calling when you’re lonely, late at night,” while a wibbly-wobby synth pattern and defunct bass swipes bring together an all-round enchanting soundscape.
The crooning guitar chords in Purple Phase make it a more Portishead trope than any other but earmarks one of Arlo’s most-inspired to her second, if anything. Elsewhere, Weightless was the first encounter we saw of the new Arlo in 2023. A flirtatious offering to her new project. The documentation of your 22-year-old expeditions through love and adventure is revealed in Weightless most. A somewhat darker sobriety to the cravings of that push-pull affection, as Parks’ wheezes and oozes out, “Just give me a sign if you want me / Just give me a sign if you wanna stay.
Slightly whimsical in deliverance, Pegasus sees Arlo Parks get use out of her LA phonebook with fellow my-life-is-a-movie Phoebe Bridgers, with a woozy embrace. The rest of the album takes a more sombre turn, as Arlo realises that pain – and fate – is inevitable. Glitchy Puppy with a warbled bass; acoustic cools of distant I’m Sorry; even angelic Room (red wings) is soft on the outside but has a chilling centre as Arlo denotes frustration, “we’ve could’ve been immortal / But the dream fell flat with you / You were on a different page.” My Soft Machine ends with Arlo’s obsession with devotion and the whole “devoid of attention” is enough to make anyone feel like a Ghost – a melting like mulled wine.
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