Arlo Parks’ ‘Ambiguous Desire’ is a melancholic-soaked masterpiece
Arlo Parks takes on a more electronic-driven sound on her latest album.
★★★★☆
Photo: Sully
Three years on from her sophomore album My Soft Machine, Arlo Parks’ Ambiguous Desire sees her take on a more electronic-focused angle, while still using her signature poetic style of lyricism.
The album opens with Blue Disco, a track which lends itself perfectly to Park’s soft vocals. A gentle guitar riff picks up near the bridge of the track, sticking out from the other instrumentals and almost harmonising with the vocal laid down on the chorus. This feels like the perfect way to open up the album, giving us a fresh song we haven’t heard yet, and foreshadowing the beautiful melodies that are still yet to come throughout the nearly 40-minute runtime of Ambiguous Desire.
Jetta follows, a slightly more upbeat track where the verses supply an almost broken-down version of the instrumentals, which then swell towards the end of the song. Towards the end, the muffled sound of voices chattering and the fade out of the instruments provide a halting transition to the next track: Get Go.
Released in early March, Get Go was one of the lead singles from this album, and I can definitely see why. Perhaps my favourite track from Parks’ latest project, Get Go follows Arlo and ‘Maria’ as they meet at a bar, and I love the more narrative-driven perspective the song offers. With a great up-tempo chorus at the heart of the song, and a bass almost mimicking a heartbeat (only adding to the romantic tension hinted at in the song’s lyrics), in an album full of great tracks, this feels like the peak.
Senses is the only song with a feature on this album, really allowing Parks to showcase her talent on her own, although Sampha’s contributions on this particular song really elevate it. The lower and distorted backing vocals provided by him offer a great contrast to Parks’ light vocals in the chorus, and his feature on the bridge of the song provides an excellent way to round off the track, taking us straight into another single: Heaven.
The simple instrumental at the core of the verses provides the perfect stage for the vocals, which seem to almost glide along the bassline laid down at the very beginning, and the chorus almost acts as the inverse of this, nearly being wholly instrumental. The whole instrumental seems to shift to an almost haunting-like sound and, as the beat drops, your headphones become almost encased in this low drumbeat with piano played so delicately over the top.
Beams is a track I feel encompasses that idea of melancholy so well. The instrumentals themselves seem rather slow and have an air of sadness about them initially, but once Parks comes in with her witty lyricism (and so much emotion behind her voice), it’s impossible to tear your ears away. “I know that’s not a way to treat people you love / People you love” has been stuck in my head since I had the pleasure of listening to this album. So beautifully structured and heartfelt.
South Seconds and Nightswimming act as completely polar opposite tracks. South Seconds could well be both the shortest and slowest track on Ambiguous Desire. Seemingly only accompanied by a slow guitar at the heart of the song, Parks takes centre-stage on this track, expressing real vulnerability that we’ve only been able to catch glimpses of so far, before being torn away by an incredible instrumentation. It’s a great idea to have a more stripped-back song like this, as it not only reminds us of Parks’ talent but also her incredible way of displaying emotion so clearly through only her vocal performance.
Nightswimming feels like it couldn’t be more different. Through its use of looped electronic beats paired with the gentle use of keys, it almost feels like something you’d hear on a night out — in the best way possible.
2SIDED follows, and this was the first single to be released from the album. Having been out for almost 3 months, it gets better with each listen. This displays Parks’ ever-evolving style and is one of the highlights.
Luck of Life and What If I Say It? work well as down-tempo tracks to begin closing the album out. Specifically on the latter track, Park has really used this as an opportunity to be open, and the use of repeated lyrics (“What if I say? / What if I say it?”), perfectly reflects how genuine and honest her music is. She lets her own real-life experiences influence her work, and that’s really beautiful.
The closing track — Floette — takes the delicate backing track and reflects the lyrics. “We’re blossoming” seems to be true in both Parks’ relationship that she talks about here, as well as the instrumentals behind it, growing and evolving throughout the song. It acts as the perfect closer, and I can envision this being absolutely incredible live, so I’m excited to see what she’ll do with it when she embarks on the first leg of her tour this spring.
Ambiguous Desire is out now via Transgressive Records.
