Happy Birthday Arlo! 🎉
BY CHARLOTTE GRIMWADE, IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM (@ARLO.PARKS)
Arlo Parks turns 22-years-old today (9 August). The indie singer-songwriter was born in 2000 on 9 August, yep, that makes her a Leo.
Arlo grew up in West London and made her solo music debut with the single Cola in November 2018. After the release of her first two EPs in 2019, Super Sad Generation and Sophie, Arlo eventually began to release the tracks that would constitute her famously successful debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams.
Collapsed In Sunbeams was released in January 2021, ranking third in the UK charts. Having previously released two songs from the album back in May 2020, Eugene and Black Dog, Arlo had already made a name for herself as an emerging indie artist. After the album’s release she won the Breakthrough Artist Award at the 2021 Brit Awards, as well as the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year.
Arlo has collaborated with numerous artists, including Clairo, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles, all of which she’s opened for on their respective tours. Performing at Glastonbury this summer, Arlo not only completed her own full set, but also joined Phoebe Bridgers for an iconic rendition of Graceland Too, much to the indie music-loving crowd’s delight. Arlo’s latest single Softly was also released in February of this year.
Arlo’s music is infused with incredible lyricism, all alongside her impressive mellow vocals and instrumentation. The artist has cited Radiohead, Otis Redding, Joni Mitchell and Sylvia Plath as some of her main influences. Songs such as Too Good and Caroline reflect the way in which Arlo effectively uses repeated refrains whilst embodying a uniquely observational song writing style. Meanwhile, tracks like Green Eyes explore Arlo’s sexuality and relationships. Stating in an interview that the song was directly inspired by Pat Parker’s poem My Lover Is A Woman, the lyrics discuss the concept of self-acceptance.
Each song on Collapsed in Sunbeams acts as a delicate portrayal of specific moments and memories from Arlo’s adolescence. The past year will surely inspire equally insightful compositions. Today on Twitter, the artist wrote: “22 sunloops today!!! Thankful for the wonder and the intimacy and the sacrifices and the red eyes and the beach days I’ve lived through this year. The year I fell in love, the year dreams materialised, the year the music truly reached – onwards onwards – I’m lucky!!”
22 sunloops today!!! Thankful for the wonder and the intimacy and the sacrifices and the red eyes and the beach days I’ve lived through this year. The year I fell in love, the year dreams materialised, the year the music truly reached – onwards onwards – I’m lucky!! 🍋 pic.twitter.com/kkPy3RonIK
— Arlo Parks (@arloparks) August 9, 2022
Arlo has already made waves in the music industry and definitely has an exciting career ahead of her. Her next orbit around the Sun will hopefully inspire even more new music and show-stopping live performances.
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