Arlo Parks has found herself on the dancefloor

Some nights out are so euphoric, so life-affirming, that it can be difficult to put the experience into words. But Arlo Parks, as ever, finds a way. “You know when the night just flows, time kind of dissolves, and you’re lost in it,” she says with a wistful smile, remembering the moment when she first truly felt at one with the dancefloor.

It was April 2024, and the singer had just reached the end of the tour for her second album, My Soft Machine, in Brooklyn. After months on the road, pouring everything into her shows and exchanging energy with audiences, she was ready to let go and celebrate. Parks and her bandmates headed to the now-closed underground nightclub Black Flamingo. There, in the club’s basement, she realised the transformative power of dance music.

“It was almost like a womb, it felt like you were inside the speaker,” says the 25-year-old. Parks had been clubbing before, but this time, surrounded by a hundred dancing bodies, the collective joy in the room felt almost transcendent. “I was looking around, and there were so many different people from so many walks of life. I felt a sense of belonging there, because, in a way, everyone belonged.” They ended the night in a Chinese restaurant opposite the club. Parks’ journey into the world of nightlife, however, had only just begun.

If you’re one of the more than two million Spotify listeners who’ve let her voice soundtrack life’s most tender moments – from reflective Sunday afternoons to breakups, burnout and grief – you might be surprised by her turn to dance music. The Arlo Parks, who won the Mercury Prize for her debut album, Collapse in Sunbeams, in 2021, then followed it up two years later with My Soft Machine, rocketed to cultural prestige with her knack for raw introspection: lyrics that excavate the corners of the human psyche and parse the findings into words that can bring grown men to tears. Her soft, delicate vocals are a warm sonic hug, making listeners feel a little less alone; her smooth blend of indie, soul and storytelling soothes difficult emotions. Not exactly stuff made for 12-hour raves.

But on her upcoming third record, Ambiguous Desire, Parks threads her diaristic pen through faster beats and headier, afters-ready production. Her keen observations and heart-on-sleeve lyrics are still there, just in a different context. Take the opening track ‘Blue Disco’, for example, which drops us in the middle of a house party complete with deep chats and weak stomachs – not exactly a dance track, more a vibe-setter with grungy guitars. Things quickly ramp up with subtle breakbeats and pirate radio samples on “Get Go”, then oscillate between the come up and come down throughout the album: a woozy collab with Sampha on “Senses”, crescendoing harmonies on “Nightswimming”, soaring sparkling synths on lead single “2SIDED”.