Arlo Parks - My Soft Machine

  by Zena Grieg

published: 3 / 7 / 2023

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Review

British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks has released the follow-up to her celebrated debut album ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’, which won the 2021 Mercury Prize and a Brit Award. ‘My Soft Machine’ is a pop-soul mix of dreamy ballads interspersed with addictive beats underpinned by thoughtful, confessional lyrics around a central theme of love. Highlights of this twelve-track collection include: the opener, the affecting spoken word ‘Bruiseless’ with its nostalgic, uncompromising lines: “Almost everyone that I love has been abused…/I just wish that my eyes were still wide”; the single, inspired by Parks’ visit to the Far East, the cleansing, healing ‘Impurities’ with its Japanese keyboard chimes and startling words: “…my chest is buzzing like a bluebird caged/… I radiate like a star, like a star, star, star/When you embrace all my impurities”; the grunge track ‘Devotion’ with its fiery guitar riff; ‘Blades’, a melodic yearning for a classroom crush; the cinematic, powerful ‘Purple Phase’ about a friend who is struggling; ‘Weightless’ with its hopeless refrain of being trapped: “I don’t wanna wait for you/But I need you, so I won’t go”; the laid-back ‘Pegasus’, a dream-like duet with Californian singer Phoebe Bridgers (Boygenius); and the intimate ‘Room (red wings)’ with its laconic refrain: “Without you, I am devastated/Now I just wanna eat cake in a room with a view”. Evocative, subtly impactful, Arlo Parks's new album ‘My Soft Machine’ is an engrossing ride through a colourful, sonic personal landscape that resonates.

Track Listing:-

1 Bruiseless
2 Impurities
3 Devotion
4 Blades
5 Purple Phase
6 Weightless
7 Pegasus Ft. Phoebe Bridgers
8 Dog Rose
9 Puppy
10 I'm Sorry
11 Room (red wings)
12 Ghost

Band Links:-

https://www.arloparksofficial.com/
https://www.facebook.com/arloparks/
https://twitter.com/arloparks

Label Links:-

https://twitter.com/transgressiveHQ
https://www.facebook.com/transgressive
http://www.transgressiverecords.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/Transgres
https://instagram.com/transgressivehq/

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