Chris Schulz: Arlo Parks - Ambiguous Desire

UK singer-songwriter Arlo Parks has released her third studio album – Ambiguous Desire.  

It’s a departure from her previous albums, both of which held more rock and alternative elements, whereas this one is filled with the sounds of nightlife – house, garage, and techno.  

Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to share his thoughts on the album. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That song is called Get Go. Alo's new album is
Ambiguous Designer, and Chris Schultz has been listening. He's with
us this wanting to get a Chris Hey Jack.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I think the word silky was invented to describe music
and her vocals too, right. You can hear those vocals,
they sound silky to me. That's that's the best word.
I think that sums up her music on this album.
It's a very different album to her first two. Arlo
Parks is a UK singer songwriter. She is about as

(00:42):
close to a lockdown artist as you can get. She
wrote her first album Collapsed in sunbeams in like bedrooms
and airbnbs between lockdowns, and.

Speaker 4 (00:54):
You could sort of hear that. You know. It became
quite a big hit.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
She won the Mercury Prize for it in twenty twenty one,
and apparently she went to that you Know That Awards
srmony straight after that'd come out of London's Last Lockdown,
which would be such a surreal experience. The Mercury Prize,
by the way, like that that can often be a
bit of a kiss of death for some artists, A

(01:18):
lot of artists who want to don't tend to go
on and make their best music or that can happen.
But she released the second album in twenty twenty three,
my Self Machine, that kind of wasn't as good, so
it felt like maybe that curse had struck. But Ambiguous Desire,
I'm happy to say, is a rebirth, a proof that

(01:39):
maybe that that trend hasn't quite sort of worked on her.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, it's a really interesting album. It's got quite a
big backstory. She's only twenty five years old, and she
has talked about how she missed all of her friends
going out clubbing and partying in their twenties because she
was busy working on music and touring. And so this
is an album to try and get back to that.
So it's got this kind of you can hear it

(02:06):
on that song. It's got this clubby kind of disco
housey kind of under under undertone to it. It's that's
the blueprint, it's it's it's what they call morning music.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Jack.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
I don't know if you've been visiting any clubs lately,
but morning music is what DJs play at six am
when everyone's been partying all through the night, and they
put on music to help you transition back out into
your day.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Okay, it's been a few years.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
I just learned this myself.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I see am, but unfortunately I don't see it in
the club. I see it, you know, my one year
old bedroom.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
When you're being asked to make porridge. I get it. Yeah, No,
this is, yeah, this is. It's a really good album.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
I almost see it as a counterpoint to Robin's album
last week. You know, we talked about that album, which
is like this euphoric Bursts that's kind of like that
the headline at the main event. This is sort of
the aftermath. It's very she's looking back with regrets about
missing out on this time and trying to make up
for it. So a lot of the songs are about
sort of like getting into a cab to go to

(03:16):
the party, that kind of thing. But but then the
way she sings it is just so I don't know,
she's got the sweetness and lightness to her, but some
of it's so personal that, you know, she's talked about
fans sort of like sending her the message after message,
kind of spilling their guts to her, and what a
toll that's taken on her too, you know, like she
she did have some time off, she did stuff, a burnout,

(03:39):
which I think sort of reflects us how fast she
rose and the fact that it all sort of happened
during lockdown. So yeah, really interesting album. I almost see
it as like an autumnal sort of album. You know,
if you're not transitioning from the club out into the day. Well,
we're transitioning right now from you know.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, tomorrow, you know, yeah exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
I've been playing it and it's perfect for that kind
of this kind of time of year.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah, yeah, I love it. Fantastic. Okay, what did you
give it?

Speaker 4 (04:07):
I'm going to give us four stars. I'm really enjoying
the album.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Four stars for ambiguous as I will have a bit
more of a Listen to Arlo Park's latest in a
couple of minutes, and of course you can catch more
of Chris on his substick it's called boiler Room.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live
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