I recently just listened to the new Arlo Parks album, “My Soft Machine,” which came out May 26. I thought this was a very slow but beautiful album. I have never listened to the artist Arlo Park’s in my life, this was the first time I have ever listened to one of her albums. It was indie genre music, which I have never actually listened to before. But the whole album felt very beautiful, there is a lot of guitars being played out in different songs which I really enjoyed, and just every song was smooth and calming. But I didn’t really enjoy her voice that much, it felt at times like I couldn’t really hear her that well and couldn’t understand the lyrics. This album revolves around Arlo Park’s love life and how she cares so deeply for that person in her life. A variety of the songs in this album are love songs, expressing her emotions in such a way to show how much that person means to her. Also, this album talks about her missing being a kid.

I enjoyed a handful of songs on this album. Including the songs “Impurities” and “Pegasus,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers. These songs were very beautiful and the meaning behind them about the love and affection that you can have for another person was really empowering. Also just how the music sounded in these songs just felt so nice, I again really enjoyed the guitars being used in a gentle manner in these songs and it put me in a good mood when I heard the song and just made it better. But again, a lot of the lyrics in these songs just speak to positive and loving affection towards Arlo Park’s girlfriend and how much she really cares and loves her.

There were some songs that I really didn’t care for. That was for a majority of the album which felt random and dull, while I did see some glitz and glamor in some of the songs, I just couldn’t really see myself listening to a majority of them. They just felt so random, music-wise, it felt too funky for me and it felt like there was no rhythm, everything felt so offbeat. This was a problem in “Blades” and “Dog Rose,” which were two songs that I really disliked that shared those features of the album that I did not enjoy. 

I did enjoy some songs. For the song “Impurities,” I really enjoyed everything. It made me feel so happy and I loved the amount of affection that is shown in this song. These are the lyrics that most stood out to me, “oh the look you threw me then was so intense that it was physical,” “ you’re the rainbow in my soap, you notice beauty in more forms than most” and “when you embrace all my impurities.” These lyrics are very specific and very detailed. They make these lines seem very warm and speak to how Arlo Park feels about her lover.

When I listen to the song “Pegasus,” it gives more insight on the love life of Arlo Park. These might seem repetitive in the amount of songs that are on this tracklist that speak on Arlo Park’s love life, but the Phoebe Bridgers feature makes the song just amazing because of her voice. It makes the song really standout from other songs on the album. Her angelic voice gives the song so much more meaning when Arlo is expressing her affection again, throughout the song and album. 

Overall, I probably wouldn’t recommend this album to anyone, but while I wouldn’t listen to this album again, I am glad I got to listen to a new genre of music. I would like to see more of Arlo Park’s music though, maybe just singles and not full albums. Because again, there were a few songs here and there that I thought were really good, it was more just a full album that I don’t really enjoy. I thought the amount of songs seemed too much, but that’s just me.

“My Soft Machine:” ★★☆☆☆