Arlo Parks – Ambiguous Desire

Arlo Parks has long made a home in vulnerability and poetic lyricism, and on Ambiguous Desire, she doubles down on that instinct with confidence. The album is full of psychedelic textures, punchy basslines, and dreamy vocals that blur together into something hypnotic but anthemic. While the coherence of the record sometimes lends itself to monotony, the darker sonic undercurrent, coupled with a newly found more intricate and explorative sonority, has a sensation of quiet and dreamlike absorption.

Across the whole record, Parks’ vocals are soothing and ambivalent. Get Go, one of the album's singles, is definitely the record’s most euphoric moment. Punchy but shimmery, its broadness conjures the feeling of dancing and spinning freely, arms out. South Seconds, a slow, intimate ballad, strips back to reveal a more emotive and honest expression, somehow evoking ocean waves and a fading sunset. Nightswimming bridges these different sounds beautifully. With an expansive chorus that steadily builds on the refrain 'Just a moment in time', the phrase almost becomes devotional, chanted like a dreamy mantra. 

Listen to: Get Go, South Seconds, Nightswimming