Arlo Parks Sydney review: Enmore Theater show

ARLO PARKS
Enmore Theatre, August 13
★★★

British singer-songwriter Anaïs Marinho, 22, releases music under the name “Arlo Parks”, and if that sounds like an idyllic spot perfect for picnics with friends in the summer, then her music is the gentle, buoyant soundtrack in the background, content playing second fiddle to the conversation.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that: music has always been about suiting different situations – thumping techno for when you want to annoy the neighbours, jazz for when you want to appear cultured, metal for when you want to punch a hole in a wall – and creating a chilled vibe for the low-key times certainly has its place.

The problem is when a musical mood is rigidly sustained to the point of inertia, which is the case for much of this show: the sea of ​​heads may calmly bob to one breezy song after the other, but that means no big waves are made, no boats are rocked.

The music itself, played competently enough by a backing band of four musicians, veers a little too closely to ’80s easy listening, so smooth and inoffensive that even a pretty tame bass solo during Cola elicits a disproportionate number of cheers from the crowd for sounding like “rocking out” in comparison to everything else.

Parks herself seems absolutely lovely, relaxed and smiling and kind, with a soothing, beautiful voice that calms nerves rather than frays them. But coupled with music that’s too even-keeled for its own good, the results more often than not tend to veer towards prosaic rather than thrilling.

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It’s telling that the only moment of the night that comes close to inducing a goosebump or two comes during Angel’s Song When the band mostly takes a back seat, Parks sings with just a guitar for accompaniment and proving her voice is far more powerful and affecting minus the funk-lite backing.

The vast majority of the hyped crowd, however, appears to be loving every moment regardless, and during punchier, poppier songs like Caroline, Hurt and Too goodit’s a little easier to buy into the fervour and see how Parks bagged herself the Mercury Prize for last year’s debut album, Collapsed In Sunbeams.

Even with only an incrementally bigger amount of vigor and energy than what has come before, final song Softly does a good job of getting the crowd jumping, but does an even better one of summing up tonight with its title: a gig as gentle as a summer breeze that you can appreciate in the moment, but largely forget about once it’s over.