You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway.

I wanted to revisit an episode about one of my favorite songs from 2021, Black Dog by Arlo Parks.

A few months after this episode originally came out, Arlo Parks won the Mercury Prize for

Album of the Year. She was also nominated for two Grammys, Best New Artist and Best Alternative

Album. Since then, she's released a new album called My Soft Machine, and she's going to be on tour

this spring. So here's Arlo Parks on Song Exploder from back in June 2021.

Before this episode starts, I want to let you know that the song being discussed is about someone who's alive and well today, but was going through a period of depression and anxiety.

Both the song and the interview allude to suicide, so please be careful before listening.

If you're thinking about suicide, or if you have a friend who is, or if you just need someone to talk to you right now,

you can get support by calling the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273 Talk. That's

1-800-273-8255. Or you can text Home to 741-741, which is the crisis text line.

If you're outside the U.S., check out the list of international hotlines at Suicide.org.

I'll link to all of this on the Song Exploder website and in the episode show notes.

Arlo Parks is a singer and songwriter from London.

In January 2021, she released her debut album,

collapsed in Sunbeams.

It hit number three on the UK charts,

and she won this year's Brit Award for Breakthrough Artist.

Last year, Anna Mee called her song Black Dog

the year's most devastating song.

In this episode, she breaks down Black Dog,

...