As with her debut, the first track on Arlo Parks’s second album opens with some spoken word scene-setting. On Collapsed in Sunbeams in 2021, she was found feeding a cat and slicing artichoke hearts. Here, on Bruiseless, “The person I love is patient with me, she’s feeding me cheese and I’m happy.” So in some ways, nothing has changed.
The 22-year-old west Londoner still seems most content at home, finding poetic joy in tiny details of domesticity. But in the bigger picture, everything’s different. She’s now a Brit and Mercury Prize winner who has played huge gigs supporting Harry Styles and Billie Eilish, living in LA with her American pop star girlfriend, Ashnikko.
