Arlo Parks by Joshua Gordon
“Music that captures modern-day misery in a way that feels improbably heartening” New York Times
"Parks achieves an emotional resonance that’s unflinchingly sincere" Rolling Stone
"Fans of Parks’ top-tier songwriting will be delighted to find it has only sharpened in the two years since Sunbeams" Billboard
"Ascendent" The FADER
“With laser-focused lyricism, she pulls blood to the surface” Alternative Press cover story
“An extraordinary artist who's shown the talent to convey complex emotion with a sense of maturity” Exclaim!
“2SIDED” WATCH: https://youtu.be/BGxBY7atiY8 LISTEN: https://arloparks.ffm.to/2sided
PRE-ORDER: Ambiguous Desire https://arloparks.ffm.to/ambiguousdesire
(Jan 13th, 2025) – Today, critically acclaimed, twice Grammy nominated, Mercury Prize and BRIT award winning artist Arlo Parks announces her new album Ambiguous Desire, due April 3rd via Transgressive Records. Over the past two years, Arlo dove head first into nocturnal spaces where she could be whoever she wanted. Arlo drew inspiration from the queer hedonism of NYC’s Paradise Garage to the moody nocturnal British beats of The Streets and Burial, the glittering synth catharsis of LCD Soundsystem, and rooted house grooves of Theo Parrish, losing herself on the dancefloor. Ambiguous Desire is Parks at her most confident and experimental, supplanting live band sessions for modular synths, ableton plugins and samplers that channel the frenetic, vibrant spaces she was immersed in, all while spotlighting the acclaimed poetry and lyricism she’s beloved for.
Reflecting on the making of the record, Parks shares, "I danced more than ever as I made this record, I made more friends than ever too, found myself in the weird underbelly of New York juke nights, unleashed, laughed and laughed and laughed. This record has desire at its center. Desire is a life force, it’s a wanting, a yearning, a momentum - we are all alive because there is something or someone we want - desire is an engine. But it is also mysterious, tangled, random, enlightening and HUMAN."
Alongside the album announcement Arlo Parks shares new single “2SIDED,” which premiered as a BBC Radio 1 Hottest Record. The track offers the first glimpse into the album’s world — a tender hope that a new lover feels as intensely as you do — carried by thick, humming synths and skittering drum machines. The song comes alongside a Molly Burdett-directed music video - a film about connection through movement, emotion and rhythm. Speaking about the single Arlo shares, “At its core '2SIDED' is about yearning and tension. It’s about being struck by a bolt of desire and building up the courage to put language to that feeling, to make it real.”
Parks crafted the album with producer Baird (Brockhampton, Kevin Abstract). Their process unfolded between NYC’s vibrant, community-rooted nightlife and long, introspective days spent in Baird’s downtown loft. The result is Parks’ most vulnerable, self-affirming, and euphoric work to date.
Bursting onto the scene with her distinct blend of raw lyrical self-expression and vivid vocal melody, Parks has since been nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album, won the Mercury Music Prize for her 2021 Gold-certified debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams, been named a Breakthrough Artist at the Brit Awards, and been nominated at the Ivor Novello Awards. A poet as much as a performer, Parks followed up her previous critically acclaimed album My Soft Machine with the debut of her first published book, The Magic Border, a collection of 20 new poems and exclusive images by Daniyel Lowden alongside lyrics from My Soft Machine.
Arlo is also a featured writer on Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album Cowboy Carter. Arlo has performed at Glastonbury and Coachella, opened for Billie Eilish and Harry Styles and captivated audiences across the world with her headline tour. Upon the release of previous album My Soft Machine Arlo performed on NPR Tiny Desk and appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Listen to “2SIDED” above and stay tuned for more from Arlo Parks coming soon. | 
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