Suki Waterhouse Dazzles with Pop-Rock Flair in ‘Memoir of a Sparklemuffin’

Sam Diaz

While Memoir of a Sparklemuffin seems like a more amusing and rather vague title for an emotional roller coaster of an album, the title references a colorful jumping spider, an incredible metaphor for Waterhouse’s artistic persona—iridescent and unashamed.

Extending the meaning of the title, this album in itself feels like listening to Waterhouse’s retelling of her personal experiences, as if it were a memoir of her own. 

The album’s opener “Gateway Drug,” paints the singer as a femme fatale, with the audience admiring her dreamy and ethereal voice as it strides across a dancefloor of hard-hitting guitar riffs. As a song that starts soft as it shocks you into the explosion of a 90s alt-rock head-banger. The uniqueness of not only this song alone but the album as a whole, is thanks to Waterhouse’s vocal dexterity as she comfortably draws inspiration from multiple genres and eras like ‘60s pop, ‘70s hippie jams, ‘90s alternative, and modern alt-rock. 

Waterhouse felt trapped onto the labels that people in the professional industry, having come off of playing Karen Sirko on Daisy Jones and the Six and her career as a model. The song “Model, Actress, Whatever” expresses just that. In the song, she mirrors her battles with these labels and feelings of imposter syndrome. At the heart of the song, Waterhouse holds her concern with her public view and how it’s affected how she feels as an artist. The song represents the idea of not having to live by the labels placed upon you, but rather rising above to showcase that there’s more than what meets the eye. 

The album continues in its essence of a 90’s teen movie as the album dives into songs like “To Get You.” Waterhouse's airy vocals and the song's overall mellow vibe echo the moody, lovesick tone, creating an almost cinematic atmosphere. However, its lyrics reflect melancholy as Waterhouse flows through rigid lyrics like “I dodged a bullet, still half of my heart bled out / Burned all the bridges, the fire kept falling down / Cried in the theatre to the scenes where I saved you.” The song holds a nostalgic yet Western feel as it is anchored by gentle, acoustic guitar strums and a relaxed bassline, reminiscent of a soundtrack for a coming-of-age movie.

It’s hard to put this album into so many words. Through such an artistic manner of storytelling, Waterhouse explores a lot of vulnerability from her own life as she travels through what seems like her adolescence and beginnings, hoping to find someone out there who can connect. This is Waterhouse’s most honest release yet, letting excited fans get to know a different version of her as a person as it captures the artistic essence in her familiar dreamy style. 

Don’t miss Suki Waterhouse on her upcoming tour, The Sparklemuffin Tour, as she travels across North America this fall.

Listen to Memoir of a Sparklemuffin here!