Twice GRAMMY-nominated, BRIT and Mercury Prize Award-winning artist Arlo Parks today releases her highly anticipated sophomore album, My Soft Machine, sharing the video for latest single ‘Devotion’. Out now on Transgressive, My Soft Machine also collects previously released singles ‘Blades’, ‘Weightless’, ‘Impurities’ and ‘Pegasus’, Parks’ collaboration with close friend Phoebe Bridgers.
In one of her most lively performances to date, ‘Devotion’ features an arrangement driven by smooth rhythm guitar and a steady drum pattern, laying Parks the perfect platform to paint a vivid picture of intense, burning love. Arlo shares about the meaning behind the new single, “‘Devotion’ to me is a song about feeling so in love it’s almost like being ripped apart, there’s an intensity, a wildness and a tenderness. This is one of my favourite songs I’ve ever made, it draws from the bands that made me fall in love with music from Deftones to Yo La Tengo to Smashing Pumpkins to My Bloody Valentine.“
‘Devotion’ is accompanied by an Ali Raymond and Joel Barney (Sonder Films) directed visual, about which she comments “The music video for ‘Devotion’ had to feel sweaty and nostalgic and loose. The surreal bluish hue, the sense of feral joy in the performance, the blur and the band – I wanted to pay homage to 90s rock music and the notion of loving so hard it almost destroys you”.
Previous singles ‘Weightless’ and ‘Pegasus (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)’ were both added to full rotation on triple j, while multiple album tracks have featured consistently across BBC Radio 1 and 6 Music’s A Lists concurrently. Recent highlights also include performances on The Jonathan Ross Show and Later… With Jools Holland, as well as feature on the cover of The Guardian Film & Music, DORK, MusicWeek, Gay Times and DIY. The songs have received further support from Observer, The Independent, Rolling Stone, NME, Clash, DORK, The Face and others.
Recently, it was announced that Arlo is returning to Australia for Splendour In The Grass this July, alongside her own headline shows, which includes her debut headline performance at The Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall. This trip will follow Parks’ first-ever Australian and New Zealand headline tour in last August. She performed to sold-out crowds in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as Darwin Festival and Gang Of Youth’s A More Perfect Union in Hobart.
TOUR DATES
July 14 – New Plymouth, New Zealand @ Night Light Festival | Tickets
July 17 – Melbourne, Australia @ Forum | Tickets
July 20 – Sydney, Australia @ Sydney Opera House | Tickets
July 22 – Byron Bay, Australia @ Splendour In The Grass | Tickets
July 23 – Adelaide, Australia @ The Gov | Tickets
July 25 – Perth, Australia @ Astor Theatre | Tickets
My Soft Machine is a deeply personal body of work; a narration of Parks’ experiences as she navigates her 20’s and the growth intertwined. It was recorded between London and Los Angeles, with the producers Paul Epworth, Ariel Rechtshaid, Romil Hemnani (Brockhampton), Frank Ocean-collaborator Buddy Ross and Carter Lang (SZA) – as well as some self-production from Arlo herself.
Explained ever-articulately in her own words below, you can also watch this beautiful performance video to learn more about the coming record and the themes within. “The world/our view of it is peppered by the biggest things we experience – our traumas, upbringing, vulnerabilities almost like visual snow. This record is life through my lens, through my body – the mid 20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity – what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body.”
My Soft Machine will be the follow-up to Arlo’s critically-acclaimed and award-winning debut Collapsed in Sunbeams; a record which received two Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album, won the BRIT Award for Best New Artist, received the Hyundai Mercury Prize, and won the BBC Introducing Artist Of The Year Award. Her debut album also reached the top 3 on the UK Album Charts and won the AIM Awards for Best Independent Album and UK Independent Breakthrough. On top of all this, Arlo was also nominated for Breakthrough International Act at the BET Awards, was named as the youngest ever high-profile supporter of UNICEF and an ambassador for the British mental health charity, CALM. She has plans to continue her extensive work with both charities into 2023.
Her songwriting has seen her gain fans in Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, Lorde, Florence Welch, Michelle Obama, Angel Olsen, Phoebe Bridgers, Massive Attack and renowned writer Zadie Smith, amongst many others.
My Soft Machine by Arlo Parks
out now on Transgressive
Listen/Buy: https://arloparks.ffm.to/mysoftmachine 
Tracklist
- Bruiseless
- Impurities
- Devotion
- Blades
- Purple
- Weightless
- Pegasus feat. Phoebe Bridgers
- Dog Rose
- Puppy
- I’m Sorry
- Room
- Ghost
“A sunny, spacious record fizzing with the promise of new love”
The Guardian
“My Soft Machine strikes the right balance between loftier poetical expression and kitchen-sink relatability, the extremes of which Parks has made, and continues to make, her name with. Long may that last.”
Rolling Stone (4*)
“Rather than feel the pressure of success, Parks is using acclaim to dream bigger. She might want to make room for more trophies.”
Classic Pop (4*)
“the honesty of Parks’ expression holds.”
Uncut
“a gentle progression from a radiating star”
The Forty-Five (4*)
