Arlo Parks – George

You saw it here first! Arlo Parks is going to be huge. She is exactly where pop music is going. Parks has the haunting vocals reminiscent of Billie Eillish, with a Lilly Allen edge. Both Parks and Allen hail from Hammersmith in England and Allen is a self-professed fan of Parks. On george, Parks’ newest single, she pairs jazz vocals with R&B and jazz elements and a Claptom-esque guitar solo.

Parks often cites the works of Ezra Pound and Sylvia Plath as influences and this is evident in the melancholic, Amy Winehouse like quality to the lyrics. The title of the track comes from the first name of Lord Byron, the 18th century poet. FUN FACT: Lord Byron kept a pet bear while attending Cambridge University. My brain is a repository for completely useless facts like that one.

In george, Parks turns the notion of the brooding, sensitive yet self-absorbed Byronic hero on its head by flipping the gender to the Byronic heroine. This is evident in the music video, directed by Molly Burdett, which portrays our queer Byronic heroine in the midst of ending a relationship while already beginning the next one. Parks UK roots are on display with the video’s setting on an austere British housing estate whose aesthetic could best be described as Soviet Bloc Chic. On a completely unrelated note, her skin looks absolutely gorgeous in this video.

This newest track is a slight departure from her earlier work but is a major step forward with a more mature, sexier sound.