Arlo Parks ‘Ambiguous Desire’ review: Devastating and danceable all at once

On her third album, Arlo Parks ventures on a journey of self-acceptance, wrestling with feelings of guilt, yearning and longing. She says of the album: “We are all alive because there is something or someone we want.” In her case, that something is the past and that some-one is the partner in the relationship which fell apart.

Atop a backdrop of electronic production inspired by the dance floors of Brooklyn, Los Angeles and London, Parks moves on from the bedroom indie, jazz-adjacent stylings of her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams to instead embrace the heat, sweat and hedonism of the club.

Over opening tracks ‘Blue Disco’, ‘Jetta’ and ‘Get Go’, it’s clear the dance floor is where she wants to be; that’s the place where she can forget her problems for a while. She’s “living in fiction tonight” and sings: “I just want to stay.”

The pain from which she’s hiding reveals itself on ‘Senses’, as Parks admits feeling guilt over the end of a relationship. Sampha floats onto the track and offers a piece of advice that’s rather difficult to hear: “The clarity lies in the direction of the pain, the flames.”

Throughout the rest of the album, Parks confronts her guilt and yearning head-on. She’s no stranger to introspection, so gut punches like: “You’re the place I go to when I crave a little peace, just a moment in time,” where Parks admits she’s stuck reliving her past relationship on ‘Nightswimmers’, are well within her repertoire.

Her struggle is laid bare by pillowy vocals underpinned by stunningly arranged electronic production. The sonic landscape is far from one-size-fits-all; on ‘Heaven’, so pulsating and pounding are the synths that it’s as if you’re with Parks on the dance floor, while on ‘Beams’ the palette is far lighter and poppier.

The body of work on Ambiguous Desire is as versatile as we’ve ever seen Parks, and the fact that the album ends with the question: “What does it mean if I don’t change?” before the declaration: “We’re blossoming,” on ‘Floette’ is testament to this. Ambiguous Desire is at times danceable, at times devastating, but always beautiful. In the end, the only desire is growth.