Track review: Pegasus // Arlo Parks ft. Phoebe Bridgers

“To knowing that moment of rapture, of recognition where we can face one another as we really are, stripped of artifice and pretense, naked and not ashamed.” This is what bell hooks wrote in her famous essay All About Love, and this is exactly what Arlo Parks’ latest track is about. Announcing her forthcoming album, My Soft Machine out on 26^th May, Arlo Parks has just released the new single ‘Pegasus’ featuring Phoebe Bridgers. The single is the seventh track of the album and it is the fourth single out before the album. It comes alongside an official video, directed by the duo Bedroom (Soren Harrison and Amir Hossain) for Compulsory Film.

From the starting lines, it emanates a sense of warmth, and the song indeed is about experiencing this certain kind of warmth and brightness of a good, non-toxic love. “Being with someone always made me feel used / Bet it would make me angry”. It is about knowing that you found someone to be comfortable with, to be honest, sincere, and not judged: “I feel elated when you hold me”. Adding Phoebe Bridgers’ voice helps in conveying a feeling of harmony. These two voices harmonize exactly like two compatible souls, emphasizing the message. 

In Arlo’s intention, the song should convey the terror that accompanies a real connection after a long time of absence and chaos. Just like the desert, brightness, as well as absence, are dominant. Explaining why the video is set in a desert, Arlo said: “The desert landscape has always had a special place in my heart, the scorched land, the dust, the sense of absence. Films like Gerry, My Own Private Idaho, and Paris, Texas all use the desert as its own character representing isolation, nostalgia and the journey to a place outside of yourself.”

The single is warm and intimate, but also joyful and proud of loving and being loved by a special one. It is about being seen, being felt as special and also being conscious that a real connection has been established with someone worth it. As Arlo explained: “This song is about the purity and rarity of true love, that feeling of solidity, of finding a real home in another human being, of wanting to be better with/for someone but being held as you are.”

Any advice on how to enjoy this song? It comes from Arlo herself: “Enjoy, weep, slow dance, piece yourselves back together, Pegasus is finally yours.”

Words by Miriam Viscusi

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