Arlo Parks
ABOUT this week’s guest:
Photo Credit: @_sullman
Based on Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, we know that time is relative. The faster you move through space, the slower you move through time. I bring this up because when I think back to 2021, when Arlo Parks released her full length debut Collapsed In Sunbeams, and first joined us here on Sheroes as a guest, it gives me the sensation that the last five years have gone by in a blink, and yet, simultaneously I’m mystified. If I think of all that Arlo has accomplished in that timeframe, I can only explain it using Einstein's theory. Her artistry is moving at lightspeed, therefore, she is able to slow time down. If you need a refresher, here it is. Arlo Parks was raised in west London, and was 18 when she released her first single in 2018, capturing the attention of the BBC. Soon a pair of EP’s arrived in 2019 - Super Sad Generation, followed by the EP Sophie. The accolades and press was nearly immediate. Arlo Parks was shortlisted as a breakthrough act of 2020 in an annual bbc poll of music critics, sound of 2020. Soon she was gracing the cover of NME, and won the aim independent music award for “one to watch” in 2020. Collapsed In Sunbeams arrived in 2021 already a highly anticipated debut, and the album catapulted her international career, receiving not only critical acclaim but some of the biggest awards and nominations of the industry - she won the coveted Mercury Prize for album of the year, three Brit Award nominations and one win for Best New Artist, and two Grammy nominations – Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album. Keep in mind this all happened during some of the worst of the pandemic, when touring had pretty much come to a standstill. By 2022 she was on stage at Glastonbury. and in May of the following year, released her sophomore album, My Soft Machine. That was when we last caught up with Arlo Parks, and by the end of 2023, Arlo had also published her first book of poetry, called The Magic Border, and My Soft Machine was unanimously crowned one of the best of the year. Now Arlo is back with her third album, Ambiguous Desire, another quantum leap forward in Arlo’s creative journey. We celebrate its arrival and welcome back Arlo Parks as this week’s Shero in the spotlight.