- 2026-04-07
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MUSIC
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Arlo Parks Releases New Album “Ambiguous Desire”
Los Angeles-based British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks released her third studio album “Ambiguous Desire” on April 3, 2026 via Transgressive Records.
It is the first release after she moved to Los Angeles in 2022.
The album comprises 12 tracks, featuring a guest appearance from London-based singer-songwriter Sampha.
On the album, Arlo Parks worked with producer Baird, with the recording process unfolding between community-rooted nightlife in New York and introspective days in Baird’s downtown loft.
Arlo Parks said of the album, “I danced more than ever as I made this record, I made more friends than ever too, found myself in the weird underbelly of New York juke nights, unleashed, laughed and laughed and laughed. This record has desire at its centre. Desire is a life force, it’s a wanting, a yearning, a momentum - we are all alive because there is something or someone we want – desire is an engine. But it is also mysterious, tangled, random, enlightening and human.”- She continued, “Every single thing you see in the Ambiguous Desire world is intentional - I've spent years dreaming it up and wanted to share some of the raw thoughts I put on my first moodboards. Imogen and Riccardo at isstudioworld helped me crystallise it into something real that you could touch and feel and fall in love with. It all started with these intimate Polaroids taken by D, my person - then the research, the dreams, the colour stories, the fonts, the work... and here we are.”
- She said of the album title, “It’s a title of two parts. The 'ambiguous' part of it comes from that notion of this record very much exploring these in-between spaces, and these emotions that are difficult to put language to. Whether it’s chemistry, or serendipity, or the feeling of fate. So, it’s very much that, and also very much being a soup of influences. And then, desire to me is such an engine, it’s such a driving force, and we learn so much about people through what and who they want, and that was one of my fascinations when it came to making the record. So, I think those two words together really capture the world, a nice umbrella for what I’m trying to put across.”
Arlo Parks explains track by track for the album.
“Blue Disco”
“This one to me is LCD Soundsystem, Lower East Side NYC, sun on your face, love of your life”
“Jetta”
“Inspired by the book Raving by McKenzie Wark check it out if you haven’t yet. Baird and I dialed in the percussion on this for MONTHS”
“Get Go”
“I feel like I was also looking outward a lot more, like it was something I wanted to share with people. I think my music in the past has been a little bit more kind of internal and introspective. And this is like for the dance floor, for the people, for the stage.
I felt like everything around me kind of blurred, like, in the best way. I felt like I was really focused in on, like, these little private moments I was having with friends. I felt so dialed in to myself as well. I think dance music and club culture is about coming back to yourself and like, how moving, like, shake something loose in the best way.”
“Senses” featuring Sampha
“Weeping in the shower, learning how to love yourself all over again. 'Treat myself with this impatience / I would never give a friend.' One of my favorite lines on the record. The most beautiful voice in existence. I can’t believe that’s my song actually. Sampha forever”
“Heaven”
“Heaven is about euphoria, community and staying present. Being in a room full of strangers sweating, connecting, losing and finding themselves is a kind of magic that's beyond language. This song was my attempt at capturing that feeling.
That's something that was really inspiring about, like, some of the xx shows, where Jamie's on the CDJ. It's like, that's something I really want to do. And also just DJing more in general. Kind of choosing, maybe some select cities to throw parties out afterwards. I want to embody it. I think it's important for people to understand that I'm not using this genre as like a it's not like a costume that I'm putting on, like, I've been living this. And I think that's why the tasting essential as well, and bringing in some of the, like, more niche references. And some of the performances that I've kind of grew up watching.”
“Beams”
“It's about the pain of feeling discarded, or feeling like the oldest hurt that you carry around like a stone is a burden not just to you but to everyone around you—the worst fear. It's about numbness and fight, flight or freeze. But it's also about trying to (slowly but surely) want better for yourself and realise that you are loveable as a whole.”
“South Seconds” via SPIN
“It’s a love song, but it’s about the growing pains of real, true love. It can be scary to show those parts of yourself, like when I say, ‘you won’t be able to unsee that’ — especially if it’s somebody that you feel like you want to be with for the rest of your life. You do have to peel back the shell in a way that can be painful but in a way that ultimately is the true beauty of what it is to love. Also, it was important to have a real reference to that place. That apartment carries so much with it and I wanted to immortalize it in the song.”
“Nightswimming”
“Made this one with Paul Epworth in the dead of winter. Burial crunchy drums, December in London, desire”
“2SIDED”
“At its core '2SIDED' is about yearning and tension. It's about being struck by a bolt of desire and building up the courage to put language to that feeling, to make it real.
I would say it's that it was made in a basement in New York in about two or three hours. So it was at this studio called Figure8 in Prospect Park, and I made it with my good friend Baird. On the day, nothing worked. We spent like six or seven hours trying to figure the studio out, and this one synth was the only thing we could get moving. And so he just wrote this little chord progression, and that's really all I had to base this entire song off. And I wrote it top to bottom.”
“Luck Of Life”
“This one was mainly produced by yours truly - l started working on it on my iPad at my kitchen table. I think everyone here has lost someone somehow - this song is about that hole in your life. Also some people are so good that they make you feel like life is inherently good and lucky. And when they leave it’s hard to remember the 'luck of life'”
“What If I Say It?”
“This one feels really and quiet and [debut album] collapsed in sunbeams reminiscent somehow.”
“Floette”
“This is the first song I made for the record actually. A hopeful note for the last song. Change is inevitable, love is everything, life is complicated in its beauty.” - source : Apple Music
