In her sophomore album, Suki Waterhouse invites us to treat ourselves to a new point of view in her autobiographical account of regrets realized, loves lost and lessons learned. In the midst of this year’s girly pop renaissance — with standouts including Charli XCX’s “Brat,” Clairo’s “Charm” and Remi Wolf’s “Big Ideas” — Waterhouse lands among the stars with her Sept. 13 release “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin.”
Waterhouse has come a long way for this moment; from up-and-coming H&M model at just 16 years old to full-fledged actress at 21 and now to indie-pop’s newest obsession. Waterhouse is no stranger to well-deserved praise; generally positive audience reviews abounded following the release of her 2022 debut album “I Can’t Let Go.” “Memoir” offers a similarly self-investigative experience marked by greater expressive freedom.
The album’s opening track, “Gateway Drug,” sets lofty expectations and yet a loftier conceptual outline for the entire album. Beautiful guitar riffs toward the beginning explode into an epic guitar-drums combination in the second verse and chorus, with Waterhouse portraying herself as a siren: “Come with me if you want / We could find what you lost.” The depiction draws on a rich arachnoid mythology in which Waterhouse sees herself as a sparklemuffin spider — a colorful, dancing arachnid — entangled in the intricate webs of life she has woven for herself.
“Supersad” — the album’s second track and fifth of seven pre-release singles — carries over the awesome instrumentation of the opening song. As Waterhouse astutely points out, “There’s no point in being supersad,” reminding us all to let go of the tears we should never have cried. “Blackout Drunk,” another standout, similarly employs a percussive sound to contrast with the solemn lack of accountability in a relationship one step away from adulterous, alcoholism-induced failure.
The next two tracks give a slight pause to the album’s so far fast-moving pace, allowing Waterhouse a moment to breathe; she touches on past relationships mired in hindsight-based revelations about an unideal age gap in “Faded” and the weighted game of saving face versus expressing one’s emotions in “Nonchalant.”
In a self-revelatory interjection with tracks “My Fun” and “Model, Actress, Whatever,” Waterhouse first commemorates the childlike joy and whimsy of her current relationship with actor Robert Pattinson that’s as fun as fun can be: “Lately I’ve been thinking you’re the one for me… / …Cause you love me like I love my fun.” She continues in “Model, Actress, Whatever,” with a vocally-gorgeous and sonically-percussive response to both the accolades and admonishments thrown at her throughout her years-long career, saying, “Fuck what you’ve heard / ‘Bout me at my worst.”
Where Waterhouse excels with unique and convivial instrumentation, her more ballad-like, less-“produced” songs tend to suffer from a lack of complexity. Nonetheless, the lyricism of such songs stands firm, namely with “To Get You” and “Lullaby,” where the former — a eulogy for all she lost in pursuit of her lover — begs the question we’ve all asked before: Was it worth it?
Bringing up the rear of the album is a Grammy-worthy five-track-run including standout songs “Big Love” and “Lawsuit,” as well as the album’s second single “OMG,” which expertly deliver an apt portrayal of anxiety, a quintessential karma song and a cry for help from the core of an obsessive self-spiral. “Think Twice” and “Could’ve Been A Star” similarly reflect the shame of self-destructive habits and regret about the past: “Classic, all I’m good at is ruining you.”
Rounding out the album’s end are perhaps some of the weaker tracks from the album as a whole, as similar prior critiques arise with songs like “Everybody Breaks Up Anyway,” a melancholy yet seemingly-peaceful contention that love is — apparently for Waterhouse — short-lived. Despite her ever-beautiful vocals, the song suffers from austere lyricism and even more austere production. The album’s final track and first single released back in March 2023, “To Love,” is a roaring conclusion portraying utter disbelief at the adoration she and her lover share: “Oh, how lucky we are.”
Across 18 tracks spanning nearly an hour, Waterhouse has firmly cemented her status as a main pop girly. She expresses in “Model, Actress, Whatever” one of her most nascent desires — “And I’d have a story, they’d know my name” — before hindsight revealed the truth of fame and its “Nightmares so loud.” Regardless, for better or worse, Waterhouse can rest assured that her name has caught securely in the webs of our minds — and we can’t wait to dig in.
