Arlo Parks has today shared the latest single from her album My Soft Machine, “Blades,” a Paul Epworth produced track. It was written in what Arlo calls “the magic week”, where the pair produced three songs for the album in five days. The single is accompanied by the official video, directed by Bedroom at Compulsory Film, who have worked with Arlo previously for her ‘Too Good’ video. “Blades” follows her recent singles “Weightless” and “Impurities.”

She says, “Paul is just a wizard; he has this childlike spirit that I’ve always really loved and he brought that to Blades. I wanted to make something that I can dance to, finally, because I feel like my songs don’t really have that quality in general. So, I took inspiration from bands like ESG, artists like Kaytranada, and a lot of the kind of 70s Zambian psychedelic rock that I love.”

Written about tackling the collapse of a friendship and trying to find the courage to rebuild it, Arlo explains, “I imagine this moment at a party where you see someone across the room that you haven’t seen in a while, you felt yourself growing apart, and you’re like, should I, should I not? And then you find the courage to approach them. That’s the story of that song.”

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.

“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. There is a quote from a Joanna Hogg film called the Souvenir, it’s an A24 semi-autobiographical film with Tilda Swinton – it recounts a young film student falling in love with an older, charismatic man as a young film student then being drawn into his addiction – in an early scene he’s explaining why people watch films – “we don’t want to see life as it is played out we want to see life as it is experienced in this soft machine.” So there we have it, the record is called….My Soft Machine.” – Arlo Parks

Arlo Parks
My Soft Machine
Transgressive

1.Bruiseless
2.Impurities
3.Devotion
4.Blades
5.Purple Phase
6.Weightless
7.Pegasus ft. Phoebe Bridgers
8.Dog Rose
9.Puppy
10.I’m Sorry
11.Room (red wings)
12.Ghost

Arlo Parks 2023 Tour Dates

May 24 – Kingston, UK @ Prizm w/ Banquet Records (intimate outstore performance)*
May 29 – London, UK – Rough Trade East, Early Show (in-store performance + signing)*
May 29 – London, UK – Rough Trade East, Late Show (in-store performance + signing)*
June 3 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound
June 8 – Porto, Portugal – Primavera Sound
June 10 – Madrid, Spain – Primavera Sound
June 14 – Leeds, UK – The Wardrobe w/ Crash Records (intimate outstore performance)*
July 5 – Tokyo, Japan @ Ebisu Garden Hall*
July 6 – Osaka, Japan @ Umeda Club Quattro
July 8 – Seoul, South Korea @ Musinsa Garage
Aug 5 – Oxfordshire, UK @ Wilderness Festival
Aug 26 – Reading, UK @ Reading Festival
Aug 27 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival
Sept 5 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Olympia Theatre
Sep 13 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
Sept 14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso*
Sept 15 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
Sept 17 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxley’s Neue Welt*
Sept 19 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
Sept 21 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia
Sept 28 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo

Pre-order my Soft Machine by Arlo Parks HERE