Arlo Parks details foundational tracks and musical influences in profile

In a profile published by The Guardian on 11 October 2026, musician Arlo Parks detailed the foundational tracks that shaped her artistic development, spanning early childhood memories, formative teenage listening habits, and the specific songs selected for her upcoming tour and releases.

Musical roots and teenage downloads

Parks traced her earliest musical memory to listening to Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics as a young child, noting an opening line that left her completely intoxicated. By age 10 or 11, her listening habits shifted toward independent music. She recalled wandering through a park wearing headphones and listening to Fake Tales of San Francisco by Arctic Monkeys after downloading the track on an iPod Nano, describing the gritty tableaux and storytelling as feeling remarkably real despite being far from her upbringing.

Eclectic vinyl inheritance and party playlists

At age 12 or 13, Parks inherited a stack of records from her uncle, choosing as many as could fit into her parents’ car. That random selection included Sade, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, D’Angelo, and Prince. While she does not participate in karaoke, she identified Prince’s When Doves Cry as her hypothetical choice, praising the unattainable quality of his vocal delivery. For parties, Parks drew on her parents’ diverse CD collection, which featured jazz artists like Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Duke Ellington alongside French music, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, and Janet Jackson. She noted that playing Janet Jackson’s All for You in her dressing room for her crew successfully engaged everyone, praising the vocal delivery for softening people.

Minimalist influences and emotional tracks

Reflecting on music that altered her trajectory, Parks pointed to House of Cards by Radiohead, citing the track’s ethereal vocals by Thom Yorke and ample sonic space. She discovered the song a few years before writing Collapsed in Sunbeams, noting a shared minimalism. On the other end of the emotional spectrum, she named Sufjan Stevens’ Fourth of July as a heartbreaking work of art that plunges listeners into the melancholy of grief and loss, alongside Portishead’s live version of Glory Box recorded at the Roseland Theater, where the audible cracks in Beth Gibbons’ voice consistently bring her to tears.

Tour dates and release schedule

Parks rounds out her listening habits with Lady Gaga’s Starstruck as a shameless car anthem, Turnstile’s I Care as a morning wake-up call, and the Velvet Underground’s Sunday Morning as her preferred funeral song. Her latest work, Ambiguous Desire, is out now. Following the release, Arlo Parks is scheduled to embark on a tour of the UK and Ireland, running from 17 October 2026 to 26 October 2026, with the itinerary beginning in Dublin.