Arlo Parks - 'Impurities'
Arlo Parks shimmers on her latest single ‘Impurities’
The indie-pop artist is back with a new single that showcases the range of her talent.
Impurities is the second single to be released from Parks’ upcoming second record My Soft Machine, arriving 26th May.
Arlo Parks career began when she released her debut single Cola in November 2018, gaining traction, and announced her debut EP Super Sad Generation, which was released the following year. 2019 also saw her performing on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury, as well as Latitude Festival.
Parks’ second EP Sophie was also met with much critical acclaim, and in January 2021 her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams was released. In 2022, she supported Harry Styles, Clairo and Billie Eilish on their respective tours.
Back in January, she announced her sophomore record My Soft Machine, and along with it came the single Weightless, a gorgeous, doubt-filled track about a rocky relationship. Impurities, however, could not be further from that, tonally.
It opens with a shimmering instrumental, and when Parks’ voice comes in, it’s wonderfully hushed and soft in her typical style. This song really is alternative pop at its finest, with production that glistens and shines around her vocals. “I radiate like a star, like a star/When you embrace all my impurities” she sings, during the spectacular chorus. At its heart, the song really does feel like a proper love song and succeeds in making the listener feel warm and contented. Speaking on the track, Arlo Parks said: “I wanted to show how being around your people really does feel like coming home. When I was writing this song, I was thinking about Gus Van Sant (filmmaker, behind Good Will Hunting) a lot and how he captures people in all their fragility and beauty and ugliness.”
Well, Parks herself has most certainly done that with Impurities, and her second record is already promising to be nothing short of fantastic.
Words by Lucy Skeet
