Recommended Tracks: “Model, Actress, Whatever,” and ”To Love”
Artists You May Like: Lana Del Rey, Sarah Kinsley, boygenius, Cigarettes After Sex
Following her smashingly successful debut album I Can’t Let Go amassing more than 100 million streams on Spotify, featuring her monumental single “Moves,” along with her platinum-selling 2022 single “Good Looking,” Suki Waterhouse exceeds expectations in her sophomore double-album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin. The singer spins a web of anecdotes from her time as a musical artist, actress, model and mother in this 18-track album.
Emulating the essence of her previous work and revitalizing its glamorous sound, Waterhouse partnered with a number of old and new collaborators, from legendary producers like Eli Hirsch, Jonathan Rado, Brad Cook, Jules Apollinaire and Natalie Findlay, among others. Together, these writers and producers cultivated a kaleidoscope of sound to envelope evocative writing.
Over the last year and a half, Waterhouse has released seven singles teasing the stylistic realm in which she cultivated. Waterhouse’s vintage voice is carried through a variety of genres, from the pop highs in “OMG”’s wakeup call, and bouncy “Blackout Drunk” to New Americana “My Fun,” or echoed harmony in “Faded.” Serving as an amuse-bouche, this collection of sonic influences sets the precedent for the album’s diverse yet cohesive atmosphere.
The final single released alongside the album is the stripped-down waltz “Model, Actress, Whatever,” a dualistic track batting an eye at the illustrious career Waterhouse has developed in the entertainment industry as she funnels out the parasitic invasion and criticism that comes with the job, and centers her partner by her side as all she really needs: “All of the years in my eyes/Fighting off lows, breathing in highs/Call me a lover, disaster, whatever/Other half of my story is with me forever.”
The album progresses with tracks carrying a similar sound of a ‘90s teen movie during a tender slow-song at a school dance, from regretful “To Get You,” and delicately enchanting “Lullaby.” Waterhouse experiments with different songwriting styles across her songs, such as using repetition in “Big Love” or playing around with rhyme in the line framing of “Could’ve Been A Star,” where she sings, “Fan it, there’s a pill that could help you/Laughin’, nights, the moon won’t stop askin’/Acress, my best work is you and I knew/I could’ve been a star”.
“Legendary” drives the album down into the most bare sound where a soprano echoey Waterhouse sings above strummed electric guitar, capturing the depth of her emotions. In this beautiful ode to her partner, she colours her love as “legendary,” referencing a number of grand and otherworldly fairytales, singing about the luck she has: “I crossed the seas into the oceans/And my ship wrecked into you/Now I see the world through red emotions/How’d you take away the colour blue?”
Continuing with the same tone, the album concludes with three final opportunities to say goodbye. “Everybody Breaks Up Anyway” is a raw piano ballad walking through a poem of frustrated acceptance, pointing out the various explanations for why two people cannot work, and accepting the end was inevitable. In “Helpless,” Waterhouse is weighing her options, knowing she has the power to leave her partner who makes her feel small.
The end of the memoir is reached by her final crescendo, “To Love,” the first single to the album. Despite her otherwise heartbreaking songwriting, Waterhouse leaves her album on a positive note as she expresses her gratitude for her partner and being unable to fathom a world where their paths never crossed: “And we talk of how lucky we got/As we watched old lovers we dodged/While the world’s fallin’ apart/You make it so easy to love.” This sentiment is further mirrored by the blissful eruption blending endless vocal layering, grand drums and ‘80s electric guitar. The song is the perfect ending to the album as it not only completes Waterhouse’s search for happiness throughout the 53-minute album, but also ends on her final curtain-call, taking her final bow as she waves off, smiling.
Suki Waterhouse is diving into vulnerability in her Memoir of a Sparklemuffin. Through confessional storytelling and seductive instrumentation, the English singer’s most honest release to date taps into a familiar sound with further depth and range than her previous work. Don’t miss Suki apart of The Sparklemuffin Tour 2024 this fall across North America.
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