by      

Alexandra Waespi

Earlier this year, Arlo Parks began rolling out new music. Today, she has released her sophomore album My Soft Machine.

And while it comes just two years after her stunning debut Collapsed in Sunbeams, this new record proves she's truly one of the best. While it does include one guest feature from Phoebe Bridgers, Parks is largely front and center on the album and it's such a great testament of her strengths as an artist.

Of her new album, the singer says: "The world/our view of it is peppered by the biggest things we experience—our traumas, upbringing, vulnerabilities almost like visual snow. This record is life through my lens, through my body—the mid-20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity—what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body."

She continues: "There is a quote from a Joanna Hogg film called The Souvenir; it’s an A24 semi-autobiographical film with Tilda Swinton. It recounts a young film student falling in love with an older, charismatic man, then being drawn into his addiction. In an early scene, he’s explaining why people watch films: 'We don’t want to see life as it is played out; we want to see life as it is experienced in this soft machine.' So there we have it... My Soft Machine."

Hear the full record now.