Review
Arlo Parks’ second album “My Soft Machine” is here to calm our tormented souls and embrace the warmth of summer.
After the huge success of her deeply personal debut “Collapsed in Sunbeams” (2021), we were eager to see how Arlo Parks’ craft would evolve. At only 20 years old, the indie pop/r&b singer from Hammersmith, London was already a sensation. In 2021, she won the Brit Award for Best British Female Artist, while “Collapsed in Sunbeams” got her the Mercury Prize and two Grammy-nominations. A non-negligible feat, since her debut was released in the midst of the musical wasteland of Covid.
“My Soft Machine”, released via Transgressive Records, received relative praise, with critics calling it a “soothing” piece. Parks herself described it as revolving around the typical worries experienced by twenty-somethings: “anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around [her], the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating P.T.S.D. and grief and self-sabotage and joy.”
Granted, it’s an endeavour to write about such topics. And a great skill to make your personal experience seem so universal that it becomes soothing to a receptive audience. Yet the unsophisticated lyrics don’t always manage to fully transcend the half-epicurean, half-stoic soul of a moderately self-aware twenty-something. This happens for instance in Room (red wings) where feelings of rejection are expressed by “I just want to eat cake in a room with a view”.
However, “My Soft Machine” surely embodies an evolution towards musical diversity since “Collapsed in Sunbeams”. Arlo shows she wants to progress outside of the classic r&b/indie scheme by playing with pop and rock influences. This is noticeable in the first single Weightless, where pop and metaphoric language (see someone’s “volcanic side”) fuse into a suave track. But it’s Devotion that really finds its mark in mingling Arlo’s smooth r&b voice with a lead guitar solo. At the crossroads of genres, the track feels like a reward for our devotion to musical hybridity.
Parks also shows she can work together with big names from the music industry, including producer Paul Epworth, who produced songs for Adele and Rihanna. Her musical growth is most visible in her collaboration with American singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers in Pegasus. Both singers’ soft, harmonious voices coupled with sweet lullaby instrumentals are a true example of what makes “My Soft Machine” sound so summery and soothing.
With the guitar riffs in Devotion and Dog Rose as exceptions, the songs’ instrumentals smoothly melt into each other, compiled to form a flowy r&b embrace. Although the lyrics can feel a little simplistic at times, “My Soft Machine”’s sound makes for the perfect late afternoon uplift – warm, light, and reassuring.
If you feel like spending a calming late summer evening in Brussels, Arlo Parks will be playing at Ancienne Belgique on 15 September. Find tickets here.
Listen to “My Soft Machine” here.