Ambiguous Desire

About

As the tour to support her second album wound down, Arlo Parks decided to live a little. Her Mercury Prize-winning 2021 debut <i>Collapsed in Sunbeams</i> and 2023 follow-up <i>My Soft Machine</i> had established the Londoner as one of the most preternaturally talented singer-songwriters of her generation, her meld of indie-pop grooves, jazz-tinged acoustic ballads, airy electronica, and confessional lyrics connecting on a huge scale. But Parks had spent a significant portion of her life on the road since emerging aged 17—and it was time to take a break. “It felt like this natural moment to settle into life and really grow roots and be like, ‘OK, how do I have fun?’” Parks tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I ended up taking a little pause and wanting to go out into the world and dance and move and meet people and explore the playful side of making music and being alive.” She immersed herself in New York’s and Los Angeles’ clubbing scenes (the singer-songwriter moved to LA in 2022), heading out with DJ friends and becoming a regular at the vibrant monthly Midnight Lovers night, soaking up its techno and house sounds deep into the night. That sparked a reinvention that resulted in her startling third album, <i>Ambiguous Desire</i>, a record that wraps Parks’ rich melodicism in the heady euphoria of the dance floor, all clubby beats and soulful bangers. “I wanted to create something that feels instinctive and intuitive and spontaneous rather than being at the fringes and being polite,” she says of changing up her sound. “I wanted to be all the way in.” This is music imbued with the exhilarating abandon of losing yourself in the club, songs propelled with a hypnotic pulse but that possess warmth too, from the strobing synths of “Heaven” to the Sampha-featuring, breakbeat-laden “Senses” and the UK garage nods of “Nightswimming.” Primarily recorded in New York with BROCKHAMPTON collaborator Baird, <i>Ambiguous Desire</i> is a rich, entrancing listen. It marks a thrilling third chapter in Parks’ story, a creative rebirth that sounds like an artist totally in touch with the person they’ve become, making exactly the sort of music they want to make. “Having that ethos sonically and lyrically allowed me to make this music I was really proud of because I was like, ‘OK, this is my heart, this is me now,’” she says. “I don’t feel bound by anything that I’ve made before. These stories are still just as true and rooted in poetry, but I think you can hear a freedom.”

via Apple Music