ALBUMS OF THE WEEK

Arlo Parks

Collapsed In Sunbeams Transgressive, out Jan 29

Arlo Parks is the chosen stage name of Anaïs

Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho. On the evidence of her debut, she is rightly tipped as one of

2021’s brightest prospects. The London singersongwriter’s voice brings Dido to mind and her musical style reflects the influence of Portishead and Eliot Smith. Her acute observational skills are evident on Caroline, as she watches a relationship die before her very eyes. An ambassador for the British mental health charity CALM, she sings on Black Dog, ‘It’s so cruel what your mind can do for no reason.’ She is the confidante of a friend who is being abused by her father on For Violet who tells her ‘It feels like nothing’s changing and I can’t do this’ but an alternative take is as the friend who won’t stand by and let it happen. Arlo Parks is one who is shining a light on dark places, albeit an infrared one. Danny McElhinney

Slowthai Tyron

Method, out Feb 5 ‘Rise and shine’ are the first words of Tyron Frampton’s aka Slowthai’s second album. That prefaces a slew of taunts and jibes at rivals and dissers in general on Smoke. So far so typical but there is more of a duality in the work of the self-styled grime-punk Northampton rapper than many in the genre. His Mercury-nominated 2019 debut Nothing Great About Britain showed he is best when he calls out societal injustices rather than calling out his peers. So, while he will holler ‘How you gonna cancel me? 20 awards on the mantelpiece, Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury’ on the defiant Flute, on NHS he rightly toasts, albeit abstractly, the heroic British health service. The machine-gun delivery can at times paper over some lyrical failings but when he fully connects as on Mazza (with A$AP Rocky), Push (with Deb Never) and the quite affecting closer ADHD, it is exhilarating. Danny McElhinney