This Friday, Arlo Parks will release the much-anticipated follow-up to her Mercury Prize-winning debut Collapsed In Sunbeams. We’ve written about singles “Weightless,” “Impurities,” “Blades,” and “Pegasus,” which features Phoebe Bridgers. Now, Parks has one more pre-release single to share: “Devotion.” The song also comes accompanied by a video directed by Ali Raymond and Joel Barney.
“‘Devotion’ to me is a song about feeling so in love it’s almost like being ripped apart, there’s an intensity, a wildness and a tenderness,” Parks shares of “Devotion.” “This is one of my favourite songs I’ve ever made, it draws from the bands that made me fall in love with music from Deftones to Yo La Tengo to Smashing Pumpkins to My Bloody Valentine.”
About the song’s video, Parks adds: “The music video for ‘Devotion’ had to feel sweaty and nostalgic and loose. The surreal bluish hue, the sense of feral joy in the performance, the blur and the band – I wanted to pay homage to 90s rock music and the notion of loving so hard it almost destroys you.”
Parks also spoke to Apple Music about “Devotion”:
It took no time at all to get there because I was just with my friends. I was with Romil [Hemnami] in bed, and we just made a little band for the day. And I’d always wanted to make a song like that, but I just didn’t have the courage. And both of them were like, “Literally, why not?” And I was like, “You’re right, actually. There’s no reason why not.” And I actually saw Deftones the night I finished it with Paul at Kentish Town in front of a couple thousand people with Chino just ripping it in his little jeans. It was great. And yeah, I think those moments happened so quickly and by accident, but it felt so natural. There was such a sense of organicness to the way that every song came about, really, on this album.
Listen and watch below.
TOUR DATES:
05/24 – Kingston, UK @ Pryzm w/ Banquet Records (intimate outstore performance, early show – 5pm)
05/24 – Kingston, UK @ Pryzm w/ Banquet Records (intimate outstore performance)*
05/29 – London, UK – Rough Trade East, Early Show (in-store performance + signing)*
05/29 – London, UK – Rough Trade East, Late Show (in-store performance + signing)*
06/14 – Leeds, UK – The Wardrobe w/ Crash Records (intimate outstore performance)*
06/14 – Leeds, UK – The Wardrobe w/ Crash Records (intimate outstore performance, late show – 9pm)*
07/05 – Tokyo, Japan @ Ebisu Garden Hall*
07/06 – Osaka, Japan @ Umeda Club Quattro
07/08 – Seoul, South Korea @ Musinsa Garage
07/14 – New Plymouth, New Zealand @ Night Light Festival
07/17 – Melbourne, Australia @ Forum
07/20 – Sydney, Australia @ Sydney Opera House
07/22 – Byron Bay, Australia @ Splendour In The Grass
07/23 – Adelaide, Australia @ The Gov
07/25 – Perth, Australia @ Astor Theatre
08/05 – Oxfordshire, UK @ Wilderness Festival
08/26 – Reading, UK @ Reading Festival
08/27 – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival
09/05 – Dublin, Ireland @ 3Olympia Theatre
09/13 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
09/14 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso*
09/15 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
09/17 – Berlin, Germany @ Huxleys Neue Welt*
09/19 – Milan, Italy @ Alcatraz
09/21 – Paris, France @ L’Olympia
09/28 – London, UK @ Eventim Apollo
10/01 – Washington, DC @ All Things Go Festival
*sold out
My Soft Machine is out 5/26 on Transgressive.
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