Collapsed in Sunbeams by Arlo Parks

There’s a good chance you’ve heard the artist here at #14, even if you can’t name her. Arlo Parks and her fantastic debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, are seemingly everywhere and on everyone’s lips. The album is littered with sweet, approachable, soulful R&B, primed and ready to be the pleasant background for many a musical movie montage.

Arlo Parks is 21 years old, a number so low it proves she has no legitimate right to be as talented as she is. And yet. The London-born singer/songwriter, whose full name is Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, has accomplished a ton in her short career. She started releasing original music in 2018. In 2019 she released two EPs, and the right peoples’ ears started to perk up. She collaborated with Glass Animals and Phoebe Bridgers, both of whom appeared prominently on past Top 31s. Continuing unabated on her upward trajectory and outpouring of creativity, she wrote 12 more songs and unleashed Collapsed in Sunbeams on the world, and quickly won the 2021 Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. I won’t be surprised when she walks away as Best New Artist at the upcoming 2022 Grammys.

It was difficult picking the right video to feature above, as she’s created quite a few for the album:

“Too Good,” above
“Hope”
“Caroline”
“Green Eyes”
“Hurt”
“Black Dog”

The album feels almost too perfect. The production is immaculate. The beats sublime. And the lyrics never offend. It’s sometimes hard to tell one song from the next, and it carries an air of temporariness to it – something that will burn bright and then flame out quickly. That may be a good thing, forcing Marinho to explore further depths, uncover more layers. In the meantime I’ll enjoy Collapse, and anxiously await what comes next.

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15. Loving In Stereo by Jungle
16. Flying Dream 1 by Elbow
17. Screen Violence by Chvrches
18. Blue Weekend by Wolf Alice
19. Mainly Gestalt Pornography by Pearly Gate Music
20. Peace Or Love by Kings of Convenience
21. These 13 by Jimbo Mathus & Andrew Bird
22. Mr. Corman: Season 1 by Nathan Johnson
23. Home Video by Lucy Dacus
24. I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute to The Velvet Underground & Nico by Various Artists
25. Siamese Dream by Fruit Bats
26. NINE by Sault
27. Observatory by Aeon Station
28. The Monster Who Hated Pennsylvania by Damien Jurado
29. A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine
30. Where the End Begins by Knathan Ryan
31. Private Space by Durand Jones & The Indications

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Dreamland by Glass Animals

I’m writing this review on the night of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s inauguration, and hooooo boy it’s amazing the difference a day can make. It would be foolish to think that all our troubles are behind us now that the 46th president has been sworn in, but it sure has been nice to feel that way just for an instant. There’s a long road ahead, but it feels so good to have a president that has already shown he has a plan and is headed in the right direction.

It couldn’t be more fitting a night to write about Glass Animals, whose fantastic third full-length album Dreamland is just barely missing the top 10 of 2020. This album is fun, bouncy, and instantly lovable. These songs evoke a sound of treacly throwback, to bands like Passion Pit or Suckers, with electronic-driven beats underneath higher-register male vocals.

After you first listen, and then repeat, and repeat again because you just can’t stop yourself, you start to hear the words to the songs. It’s only then that you start to realize the topics being sung about are deeply personal, often dark life stories. Dave Bayley, the band’s principal song writer, said this about the album:

The idea of Dreamland is to go from my first memory up until now, through all the big realizations that happen in life. It's about the things that happened and the people that surrounded me in that time, good things, bad things, horrific things, funny things, confusing things, bits where I hated myself, bits where I hated other people, first loves, discovering sexuality, sadness, abandonment, mental health. It's just painting pictures of those moments and times that, looking back, make you who you are.

Bayley, from Oxford, England, not only wrote the songs, but he also sang and produced all the songs on Dreamland, with a touch of help from his Oxford childhood friends and bandmates Drew MacFarlane (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Ed Irwin-Singer (bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) and Joe Seaward (drums, percussion). The band (or maybe just Bayley himself?) even put together a full video set for the album. Not just lyric videos, like most bands these days, but a short form video has been created for each song on the album. On top of that, the band’s website (glassanimals.com) is creatively genius. I don’t want to give it away — just click that link and look for yourself.

Then go buy the record and listen. I won’t be surprised when it doesn’t leave your speakers for days.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

Subscribe to the 2020 Bacon Top 31 playlist: Apple Music / Spotify
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#14 on the 2021 Bacon Top 31 — Arlo Parks

#11 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Glass Animals