Twice Grammy-nominated, Mercury Prize and BRIT award-winning artist, Arlo Parks, shares her first offering of 2022 with the new single ‘Softly.’ The track showcases a poppy and upbeat side to Arlo’s sound juxtaposed with her lyrics about a relationship fizzling out.
Speaking about the single Arlo says, ‘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. 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.’
The song’s video was directed by Zhang and Knight and shows Arlo in an idyllic location that slowly unravels layer by layer, each stage more sparse and surreal. Discussing the video, Zhang and Knight say:
‘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.’
UK tour dates
4 June – Leeds – Live at Leeds
22 June – Dublin – Aviva Stadium with Harry Styles
25 June – London – The O2 Arena with Billie Eilish
12 July – London – Somerset House
