FOLLOWING the release of her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Collapsed in Sunbeams’ in 2021, Arlo Parks has made a welcome return with the release of ‘Softly’,
Her first release of the year is one of her more poppier outings. A song about a relationship ending and the accompanying feelings of rejection and insecurity, the lyrical content is juxtaposed by the sunny feel of the track with its fast-paced percussion, hand claps and playful piano lines. Propelled by its relentless hook, it’s a brilliant return.
‘Softly’ is a song about yearning, about how fragile you feel in the dying days of a relationship when you’re still desperately in love,” she shares. “The song is about how it feels to brace yourself before the blow of a break up and reminisce about the days where it all felt luminous.”
Accompanied by a new video directed by Zhang and Knight, they add, “For us ‘Softly’ explored the idea of wanting something that was once perfect to end in a gentle way, and we wanted to express this using the world surrounding Arlo. We were instinctively drawn to the warm toned, hazy nostalgia of the 1960’s, as we loved the idea of something universally romantic being slowly stripped away throughout the film. We based the colors of the bricks, trims and doors on mid-century painting in order to bake this romanticism into everything. The production itself was a huge challenge, as everything was captured in-camera with each piece of the set built on wheels operated by several production crew. However, we knew it was all worth it when we saw the skyscrapers dancing around Arlo for the first time.”
Listen below.
