Arlo Parks leaves it all on the dance floor on ‘Ambiguous Desire’

You know when the music is so loud you can feel the bass in your body? Even if you’ve never gone clubbing, you’ve probably felt that physical connection to music. The joy of dancing with friends or losing yourself in the beat can feel transcendent.

Our guest today, Arlo Parks, knows that feeling well. Her rise was sudden. In 2021, she released her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, which won the Mercury Prize, and she emerged from the pandemic lockdowns as a star.

Parks’ new album, Ambiguous Desire, is deeply shaped by New York’s club and DJ culture. In our conversation today, she talks about how she’s grown and changed since then, the space she needed to take for herself after all that success and attention, and how she eventually found refuge and inspiration on the dance floor.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.