Downtown Minneapolis hosted two pop-adjacent artists on Thursday evening. One danced in elaborate costumes with choreographed backup dancers, and the other sat calmly, eyes closed, and offered a warm embrace in the form of sung and spoken words. The latter artist was Arlo Parks. (Doja Cat was three very congested blocks away at Target Center). Those at the “Arlo Parks Unplugged Music & Poetry” show at Fine Line were treated to an intimate gathering with the jazzy, soul-pop singer from south London.

By age 21, Parks (full name: Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho) had received two Grammy nominations and won the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year for her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams. Now 23, Parks has a more eclectic and high-energy second album, My Soft Machine, and poetry book, My Magic Border, to her name. 

In the introduction of the book, Parks writes, “I would never want to prescribe a particular reaction to my readers, but I would hope for your responses to be in the realm of softness. I hope that you as readers will probe your tender spots as you read my work.” (More on the book here.) As listeners, it’s hard to imagine the audience’s response to the show as anything other than being soothed under the artist’s spell. Perhaps a bit of her charm has to do with the sound of her soft British accent to our American ears, but there’s something uniquely gentle about Parks’ presence.

Thursday was the first night of The Current’s Winter Warmup, and Parks shared her appreciation for meeting face-to-face with people and participating in an event connected to a radio station. “[Radio] is something I grew up with and kind of inspired my love of music,” she said. “It was in the U.K. so we had different stations but...” The audience laughed. She continued, “But driving to the store with my dad, and him putting on the radio, that's like one of my initial experiences with music, and it was something that was so meditative.”

Fine Line’s show may have been “unplugged” but still held plenty of depth in sound as a guitarist, keyboard player, and electronic drum machine producer played alongside Parks. 

Halfway through the performance, the singer lifted a piece of paper to read two poems, “Happy Queer Film” and “A Note For Arthur Russell.” (She said she forgot her own copy of the book at home.) The spoken words rode slow guitar strums and sounds of natural running water.

In between songs, Parks opened her eyes, grinned, and gave sincere explanations about the songs to follow. She shared that “Eugene” was inspired by her favorite Radiohead album, In Rainbows, and that one of the most hypnotizing, funky songs, “Impurities,” was her first released track that didn’t come from a melancholy space, rather paying homage to new friends in a new city.

It wasn’t until seeing the physical setlist after the show that it became evident these weren’t spontaneous thoughts. 

Like most artists do, Parks placed a paper setlist with song titles typed out on the stage floor. But in between a few tracks, she’d handwritten talking points. By “Black Dog,'' she wrote “Depression,” a word that led her to talk about how the song came from the feeling of isolation one may experience when in a dark place. She threw the song out into the world to see if anyone could relate, and many did. Now it’s comforting for her to see people singing along.

Parks’ words on the final track “Hope,” “You're not alone like you think you are / You're not alone like you think you are / We all have scars, I know it's hard / You're not alone, you're not alone,” summarized her intimate, albeit-limited time singing on top of the stool.

Along with the poems, the show included nine songs, which equated to a roughly 45-minute set and might have felt like a micro-show to some people. Sometimes an embrace is brief, but its meaning remains long after someone leaves.

Joining the unplugged evening was Geoffrey Lamar Wilson, performing under the name Laamar, who didn’t know if he would be in the presence of an attentive crowd, or one who would talk over him. Fine Line proved to be the former, and the local musician said he felt honored and humbled. Wilson usually plays with a bassist and drummer, but standing solo for this show, each crisp guitar pick was distinguishable, and each vocal note was impressive.

Wilson released his debut EP, Flowers, in July to introduce an indie folk-rock sound with hints of soul and R&B. On stage, he spoke with a lighthearted sense of humor, but within the EP songs themselves, police violence and racial justice are prominent themes. “These songs, like so many I write, come at the expense of needless tragedy, and rest on the shoulders black and brown bodies taken from us too soon,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

With only four songs out on streaming services, the majority of tracks were likely new to most people. Hinting at the style of a future release, Wilson followed one track by saying, “You don’t set out to write a bossa nova song, but everyone has one bossa nova song in them.” He walked offstage to an outpouring of applause. “Wow,” a person in the crowd said, in awe. Agreeing, another responded, “Beautiful.”

It won’t be long until both artists play in Minneapolis again; Laamar joins local musicians for Best New Bands on Jan. 12, and Parks visits First Avenue with Chloe Geroge on March 15.

Arlo Parks

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Laamar

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Setlist

Blades

Weightless

Impurities

Black Dog

Purple Phase 

Eugene 

Pegasus

Jasmine (Jai Paul cover)

Hope