The release of Arlo Parks’ ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams,’ on the 29th of January was a good day for British music, with this and another debut album from a brilliant young artist from the UK, Celeste’s ‘Not Your Muse,’ was a double whammy for fans of both singers who are each equally brilliant in their own right. Arlo Parks’ album is a unique blend of Indie, RnB and Spoken Work and cuts a solitary path across the map of British music, infinitely fresh and revitalising. Tracks like ‘Hurt,’ especially have great radio playability with the catchy hook line and laid back beat. The album also features ‘Caroline,’ which has already become a cult favourite when it was released in 2020 and has been making the rounds on radio and streaming mediums.

Arlo Parks is another rising star on the increasing exciting British music scene which is producing a great many talented women at the moment, from Dua Lipa to Celeste it is certainly a great time to be a British woman in music and it is surely long overdue in an industry which has been almost completely male dominated here for a long time. An appearance on Jimmy Kimmel is surely a good sign and an indication that ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams,’ is  bound to break the American market, a mark of success for British artists ever since The Beatles and other British Invasion bands managed it in the 1960s.

Arlo Parks is known for her friendship with Oxford Indie band Glass Animals and supported them for their live-streamed concert in support of their 2020 album ‘Dreamland.’ While releasing an album in 2020 was surely the most challenging experience for any musicians in recent memory, Arlo Parks features a less damning but equally challenging situation in 2021. While the doom and gloom of 2020 was defined by a lack of knowing what the future might hold or when the current situation may begin to change, 2021 does offer hope of a way out, yet the present situation is in fact in many ways more challenging and more deadly than last year.

Arlo Parks, like everyone in the music industry, has a mountain to climb in 2021 to keep the effects of the coronavirus crisis at bay, as we hope that situation gradually begins to draw to a close. While the health emergency may now have a tentative end in sight, the economic crisis which is yet to be truly felt will be hurting for many years, and musicians have a heavy load to carry.

Oh my gosh I can’t believe I’m finally saying this man, I’m tearing up a bit as I write this…can’t wait for you to hear it!!! The vid for green eyes will be out at 7pm. So much news! I’m so fkin pumped You can pre-order my album now!! https://t.co/TBcIrJT1Lu

— Arlo Parks (@arloparks) October 20, 2020

According to a press release, Parks’ album is “a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding my adolescence and the people that shaped it. It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia – I want it to feel both universal and hyper specific.” When asked by Gigwise what inspires her songs, she declared “My friends, flowers, after-parties, living rooms, parks, beaches and long drives.” Somewhere in these remarkably eloquent and intentional descriptions, you have the full picture of what Parks is capable of.

Latest single ‘Green Eyes’ borrows the talented vocals of US singer and all-round legend Clairo, and their combined voices and Parks’ incredible song-writing is breath-taking at points. ‘Green Eyes’ is sort of a bit dreamy, hazy, indie, a bit beats-driven and chill, and even a bit early 2000s pop all at once. Lyrically, it is nothing short of poetic. Parks delves into her early and bittersweet romantic memories, and her experience of her sexuality growing up. “Of course I know why we lasted two months / Could not hold my hand in public” is heart-wrenching.

Parks is not exactly known for shying away from complicated and potentially heavy subject matter. ‘Black Dog’, the first single from the album now known as Collapsed In Sunbeams, presents the realities of mental illness with stark and tragic honesty. She has been called the “voice of a generation” multiple times, a description which Parks takes seriously. Without becoming hung up on the term ‘gen-z’, it’s true that Parks, like many of her contemporaries, carries a weight in her song-writing that seems to derive from any combination of social media, mental health awareness and the specific experience of being a teenager in the last decade.

Arlo Parks has had a crazy busy year. Some highlights include: putting out three amazing singles and a string of moving covers, embarking on her first headline tour, winning the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch, winning over almost every radio DJ and working on some incredible collaborations. The latest of these include her recent appearance on Glass Animals’ live stream for a new version of ‘Tangerine’, and her Radio 1 Live Session with Phoebe Bridgers, recorded in a church. Just recently, she shared her first cover in French for Deezer’s InVersions mixtape (Park’s mother is French, so she considered it a special moment).

When Parks embarked on 2020, she was fresh out of her A-Levels, ready to headline a tour and generally right on the edge of something great. Despite, well, everything, this year has truly been hers. When New Year rolls around, she will be set to release her debut album and we can expect her to well and truly take off.