Suki Waterhouse’s second album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, is good but sadly not very exciting.
The opening track “Gateway Drug’’ is a strong beginning to the album, and it sets the anthemic tone that defined Waterhouse’s debut I Can’t Let Go. However, unlike I Can’t Let Go, Waterhouse’s new album takes too long to properly get going. The first half of the 18-track album is steeped in similar sounds: the crashing drums of choruses knitted together with brash guitar chords and Waterhouse’s reverberating vocals.
Whilst I Can’t Let Go never became repetitive, the same cannot be said for Memoirs of a Sparklemuffin. Until the track “Lullaby”, you are left wondering if you have become trapped in the aural equivalent of a spot-the-difference game.
“Lullaby” is the first track on the album that is starkly different. The song is stripped, simpler, slower, and for these reasons, contrasted against the continuous pop-rock clammer, feels suddenly fresh. It is this introduction of difference that makes the rest of the album far more enjoyable. Perhaps the first half is meant to represent the repetitiveness of Waterhouse’s years as a model, but all it makes me wonder is whether the album would have been better if there had been some harsher creative editing.
However, due to the length of the album, the sound of Suki Waterhouse does become boring. I say this as someone who enjoys the long albums of Lana Del Rey and SZA, but Memoir of a Sparklemuffin relies too heavily on the same types of sounds. For me the effect of all the echoey effects layered on top of each other creates a sense of musical nausea.
Across the album, Waterhouse fails to surprise. Each song is ultimately formulaic, and whilst they are danceable and fun individually, when clumped into album format, their individuality is lost in a swirl of indistinguishable sounds. This is a huge shame because Waterhouse’s lyrics are beautiful, but none stick out and only a few of them remain in the mind once the album has finally reached its conclusion.
My main qualm with the album is that there seems to be no through-line between all the songs that can truly constitute to the album being a ‘memoir’. Sitting here, listening to the full 53 minutes of this album, I am wondering what story Suki Waterhouse is trying to tell.
I feel like at least six of the songs could have been removed and I wouldn’t have missed them. In the mentality of being a cynic, a part of me is annoyed that this album is a slight waste of my time, and that is never a feeling you want to feel when listening to music – or a reaction to any piece of art. And in the moments after this album has finished, you will begin to wonder if all the songs were also in the same key.
In Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, Waterhouse continues down the same vein as I Can’t Let Go, but instead of finding the light at the end of the tunnel, she becomes lost and never seems to find or get to the point of anything she is singing. Overall, the songs are constructed well, but the album is a confused collection of echoes of itself.
6/10