Arlo Parks is in a better place. With her Desire tour, the 25-year-old Mercury Prize winner brought vulnerability and euphoria to the dancefloor.
The dancefloor has long played a larger role in conversations around mental health, with contemporary artists like Fred Again openly cultivating its potential for emotional release and processing. That’s just how it felt to be at the Desire tour.
After the release of her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams in 2021, Parks experienced burnout and moved to Los Angeles where she immersed herself in the nightlife. This spring she came back with a euphoric, introspective record, Ambiguous Desire, which was heavily shaped by queer club scenes in London and New York and the contradictions of longing and heartbreak.
Enveloped in the pulsing drums of “Heaven,” Parks shuffled across the stage. When she finished singing she ran her hands over her cropped, bright red hair. The basslines on Ambiguous Desire sounded so juicy on the sound system. It was impossible not to bounce. After swaggering through “Jetta” and “Senses,” she got behind the keys and dedicated “Beams” to people going through a tough time.
“I’ve always felt like music has been the thing that held me. Music brought us together and that matters.”
After this soft interlude – she also sang a mashup of “Cola / Super Sad Generation / Sophie / Second Guessing” – the set lost a bit of steam. Parks’s world lies within a pocket of tender emotional vulnerability, which can lack dynamism with its slow tempo and gentle vocal performance. All the while, the dim lighting – Parks’ face was hidden in darkness from where I stood – lulled me into complacency. The energy picked up when she played her old tracks. The phones came out for “Eugene” as the crowd shouted the line “I hate that son of a bitch.”
The final quarter hour transitioned back into dance. Parks got the room two-stepping to garage and jungle (“Nightswimming” / “Floette”). Her final track, “2SIDED,” pays homage to Madonna who she says was on repeat while writing the album.
She closed out with two encore songs, “Devotion” and “Get Go.” The latter track tells the story of Parks running into a heartbroken friend at a nightclub and dancing with her to numb the pain.
Although the MTELUS crowd didn’t move beyond a polite shuffle, there was still a sense of healing in the room that night. When Parks addressed the crowd, she didn’t just smile; she beamed.
Review – Irene Wang
Photos – Steve Gerrard (from her 2024 Beanfield Theatre show)
