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.

In addition to ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, Bridgers and Parks produced a beautiful performance of ‘Kyoto’, one of the lead singles from Punisher, which was released earlier this year. It has become a firm fan favourite, and Bridgers is cultivating something of a cult following.

Bridgers predominantly leads the vocals in these two covers, while Parks accompanies on the piano, but the occasional harmonisation of their two voices is completely ethereal. The collaboration has been described as everything from “tender” to “fragile”. Parks herself tweeted that she had loved working with Bridgers and that she was in awe of her “angel voice”. The church venue only contributes to the incredible atmosphere that the two create, with nothing more than two voices, a piano and a skeleton onesie.

In fact, Parks and Bridgers have been running in the same circles for a while now; just recently, Parks covered ‘Moon Song’ from Punisher for her ‘Lo-Fi Lounge’ Series. You can watch her rendition below. A further circularity: this is not even Parks’ first high-profile Radiohead cover. She recorded and released ‘Creep’ for the soundtrack of the film Shy Radicals, which will screen at film festivals later this year. Although she doesn’t sing much of ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, her unique, beautiful voice completely reinvigorates ‘Creep’, the one Radiohead song that you might have thought you’d heard every variation of by now!

Parks talked about choosing ‘Creep’, calling the song “a simultaneously delicate and brutal exploration of inner turmoil and human relationships. This song has acted as a refuge for me, during times of self-reflection and low mood, for many years and Radiohead as a band has deeply influenced my music.”

She talks about all of her work with the same invaluable insight. Describing her latest single, ‘Hurt’, she told NME: “‘Hurt’ surrounds the possibility of healing from pain and the temporary nature of suffering … it is supposed to uplift and comfort those going through hard times.”

Generally, Arlo Parks has had a busy summer. When ‘Hurt’ was released last month, it premiered as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record.  Earlier today she shared a post online about how grateful she was for the enthusiastic reception of it; this came in the wake of it being named Greg James’ song of the week this week, as well as occupying a spot on the 6 Music B-list.

The reaction to Hurt has been so completely uplifting and honestly made me feel so special – I’m excited to announce that it is king @gregjames‘s tune of the week PLUS on the B list @BBC6Music – thank u to everyone for believing in me and my work. pic.twitter.com/97IoZ5BRAu

— Arlo Parks (@arloparks) September 7, 2020

These two special covers, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘Kyoto’ feel somehow hopeful, after a summer of postponed album releases and digital festivals. Although we’re all desperate for those things to get back to normal, Parks and Bridgers, amongst others, have spent this time showing us a different way to enjoy music, through covers and collaborations and live streams. As listeners and fans, it feels like there is no greater pleasure than having the music world dominated by artists who are so in love with their jobs that they talk this eloquently and produce music of this quality and completely refresh the songs we love most.

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A post shared by COLORS (@colorsxstudios) on Sep 1, 2020 at 8:02am PDT

Hurt, which debuted on August 18 as Annie Mac’s hottest record of the week, is a powerful song that explores alcoholism and depression. Her performance of it for COLORSXSTUDIOS takes place in front of a plain rust orange background and in it she displays artistic confidence beyond her years.

COLORSXSTUDIOS, in the same vein as MTV unplugged and Tiny Desk Concert, is all about paired-down production ‘without distraction’. Whats interesting is that Park’s voice sounds virtually the same on COLORS as it does on the single itself, a testament to her natural talent and the veracity of her records.

When asked the question ‘what motivates you at the moment‘ Arlo replies: ‘helping others… thats always been something that has driven me‘. She cites this as one of the main reasons for sharing her art with the world. This makes sense when you consider Park’s songs as a catalogue of human conditions.

On her first EP, the eponymous track Super Sad Generation was a soulful lament to her contemporaries. Parks sang over a tight percussive beat ‘we’re a super sad generation// killing time and losing our paycheques‘.

In the next verse, she moves into spoken-word, softly saying ‘We’re bugging out it’s not hard to see// Dropped three tabs quick in the back of the Prius’. Parks is putting words to the shared ‘generational-anxiety’ of “Gen-Z” to make sense of her own feelings but also to help listeners make sense of theirs.

Her single Eugene, released in February this year, is about having ‘complicated feelings towards someone you’ve known for a long time’. Parks said she has had this experience before, which makes sense given how honest and personal the song feels.

Eugene takes its listeners on a journey by telling a story, a story that most people have lived but not heard in the form of a catchy song on Radio 1. Park’s is helping listeners by showing them that they’re not alone in falling ‘half in love’ and feeling jealous watching their best mate go off with a new boyfriend.

COLORSXSTUDIO then asks Parks if she is afraid of being vulnerable, and to this she replies that, for her, ‘the fear of being vulnerable is outweighed by the beauty of connection’. This is clearly true for such an honest artist who uses her song-writing skills to make others feel less alone, in the same way that a good writer can echo our own thoughts back to us on the page.

Hurt is out tomorrow. My heart is bursting I’m so ready to bring this bop into your lives. Don’t forget to smash that pre-save link. Wishing you butter toast n immaculate vibes. https://t.co/nr721GnajQ pic.twitter.com/hT8GwSh12J

— Arlo Parks (@arloparks) August 17, 2020

Kicking off the conversation, Amfo praised Parks’ use of spoken word in the third verse, and asked how it came about. To this, she replied, “I’ve always really been inspired by like poetry and spoken word and hip-hop, and I felt like story telling was at the heart of this song, and I kind of wanted to add a bit more visual imagery into the track.” She also said that she had been “a little bit nervous” to include it.

Written at a friends’ apartment, the upbeat song contains some loaded lyrics, such as “Wouldn’t it be lovely to feel something for once/Wouldn’t it be lovely to feel worth something.” But, it offers a solitude in the chorus, with the words “I know you can’t let go of anything at the moment/Just know it won’t hurt so much forever.” The songwriter explained, “There are some tricky topics tackled but I wanted it to be something playful,” and this was certainly achieved.

‘Hurt’ was co-written by Parks and Gianluca Buccellati, who also produced the track. Prior to the release, Parks shared a video online, commenting, “My heart is bursting I’m so ready to bring this bop into your lives.” Despite how little the video gave away, fans were excited to listen and view the music video. ‘Hurt’ is out now via Transgressive Records, and Parks has asked fans to let her know how the song makes them feel, hoping that it can uplift them and wishing that everyone is “being sweet to themselves”.

Hurt is out now! I hope it brings you joy and uplifts you even if it’s only in a small way – I’d love to know how it makes you feel – hope everyone’s being sweet to themselves https://t.co/nr721GnajQ Alexandra Waespi pic.twitter.com/a40RNUc2Px — Arlo Parks (@arloparks) August 18, 2020

At only 20 years old, the singer-songwriter has achieved much success, releasing her most moving song to date, ‘Black Dog’, earlier this year. Furthermore, she has featured on songs with Easy Life and Future Utopia, appeared on Michelle Obama’s podcast playlist, and partnered with Amazon Music’s Breakthrough programme for new artists. Parks has confirmed that she is working on her debut album, but nothing has been publicly announced yet.