Suki Waterhouse sparkles, shimmers, and shines in 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin'

Suki Waterhouse, photographed by Jeremy Soma.

Everybody's favourite superstar is back for her sophomore album, 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin', a fitting and exciting project from Suki Waterhouse. With the title's reference to a Sparklemuffin - a brightly coloured, monogamous, performing spider - it's safe to expect Waterhouse's typical critical and complex perspective to celebrity culture, relationships and the public eye. When paired with Waterhouse's eclectic and extraordinary sound, her new project truly shines and spotlights her incredible songwriting ability.

The album's opening track, 'Gateway Drug', is a haunting and enchanting stripped-back track, luring the listener into the world created by Waterhouse in this album. It introduces a slightly more rock-infused soundscape, setting us up for the unique cross-genre sound that Waterhouse adapts during this project. With the first lines of the album being:

I know you've been waiting for someone to come pick you up, You're tired and jaded, you said you forgot how to love. I can jog your memory, Come with me, if you want, We can find what you lost.

Waterhouse takes on the Sparklemuffin character in this track, a siren-like performer, who can be whatever someone wants them to be. The track illuminates the superpower of musicians and creatives in being able to build a world for onlookers to indulge in, but ultimately the vision is what they make of it. The song's outro is a haunting take of withdrawal, with Waterhouse's distorted vocals taunting 'No you can't quit / Once it fades in / Let your head spin.' While this verse feeds into this compulsive theme of the song and the topsy-turvy nature of the album as a whole, it also begins an ongoing discussion of fame and the obsession with success - that we'll return to throughout the rest of the track list.

Album artwork for Suki Waterhouse's 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin'.

The three songs that follow the opening track were all singles released on the album's run up, perfectly reflective of Suki's wacky and dynamic mix of tunes on this project. The album's title suggesting that it is a memoir allows Waterhouse the space to attack multiple angles of life, and the decision of singles pre-release reflect this anything-goes approach to the album.

'Supersad' follows perfectly on from 'Gateway Drug' as it feels like we flip the narrative onto the carried-away victim of temptation:

Everything's going wrong. Tryna reach out but I can't find my phone. Spiralling is what I do.

As mentioned, it's difficult to listen to this album without making associations to being in the public eye and the dangers of being fame-hungry. 'Supersad' feels like an epiphany moment, where Waterhouse (or this Sparklemuffin character) snaps out of the trance placed upon her in the first track, and decides that 'I look so much better when / I don't care', realising that life is not meant to be lived with such intense sadness and obsession. Not to mention the secondary reading of these two lines being someone telling Waterhouse that she 'looks better when' then interrupting it with 'I don't care', which could be read as the treatment that she (and other models, IT girls, female celebrities etc.) receives in the media.

'Blackout Drunk' and 'Faded' then place the storytelling spotlight on romantic relationships, and criticism of male behaviours when in a committed relationship. 'Blackout Drunk' watches a dramatised series of events of a relationship breakdown with explosive, realistic yet satirical verses such as:

Suki Waterhouse in the music video for 'Supersad', directed by Émilie Richard-Froozan.

I shouldn't have said what I said last night. But I'm about to say it again: Those girls were not your friends, I was right, And the look on your face says You know about it.

Waterhouse's storytelling and ability to display different characters in this album is charming and impressive, and could also be a testament of her additional acting experience. By focusing this song on the effects of alcohol, and one's actions under the influence, Waterhouse continues this theme of substance abuse as well as this idea of multiple layers of personality. We saw in 'Supersad' the ability to alter your personality and 'Gateway Drug' with the opportunity to revisit past experiences, emotions or versions of yourself - but in 'Blackout Drunk' we have another complicated view of this. It poses the age-old question of "Can behaviour be attributed to a person when they are under the influence? Are they wholly to blame?" When thinking about the presence of the Sparklemuffin, it's clear that Waterhouse is thinking about the concept of whether someone is being their true, authentic self, or simply a surface-level impostor and/or performer. 'Faded' shares a similar theme, with the chorus reading:

You never should have changed your ways and faded, The colours you painted were perfectly simple.

Album artwork for Suki Waterhouse's 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin', artwork by Jeremy Soma.

This track shares this idea of people changing their behaviour, and adds the additional layer of the passing of time and how this can affect somebody's behaviour, or another's outlook on a situation. On this previous relationship, Waterhouse notes 'It's hard to imagine being so fucking naïve', showing her own change in acknowledging the flaws in her previous self's behaviour and decision-making.

In a project concerned so strongly with society and human behaviours, it's important for Waterhouse to reflect upon herself. 'Nonchalant' and 'Model, Actress, Whatever' is exactly that. 'Nonchalant' details the difficulty of being vulnerable once you have been placed on a pedestal as a celebrity - Waterhouse writes that once you have been labelled as 'that quintessential cool girl in a bar', it is then difficult to take a step back, and reveal your true self, in fear that 'then you'll know me'. 'Model, Actress, Whatever' then highlights the alternate side of this battle between public and private selves, with the desire to be successful and then the fame that comes with this:

I saw a star, falling from grace, And I'd play pretend, hoping one day, I'd be the girl, with that twisted fate, And I'd have a story, they'd know my name.

In current celebrity culture, it feels like a faux pas to suggest that you had ever wanted to be famous, with celebrities defending themselves against fan culture saying that they had never expected for people to hear or see what they are doing. Waterhouse takes a candid approach to this topical conversation, acknowledging that she once dreamed of being a household name. However, in true Waterhouse fashion, she flips this on its head and highlights the difficulties that arose after succeeding in these dreams:

Careful what you ask, love for the ages, When it's good all on the outside, part of the faking, You can't write the ending, it's Hollywood pages, You tell them your story and they'll make the changes.

Suki Waterhouse performing as a support act at Taylor Swift's Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium. Credits to TAS2024 / Getty Images.

For the most part, the celebrities that you see on your screens and social media platforms are following their dreams and passions, and while they signed up for their names to be in shining lights - they did not sign up for the 'Hollywood pages'. In this track, Waterhouse highlights the uncontrollability of fame once the ball begins to roll, and the dangers and difficulties that you face once people start to know your name. Having been in the public eye for over ten years and your growth being documented online for all to see, it's safe to say that Waterhouse is a role model for many, and in 'Model, Actress, Whatever', she takes this in her stride with her big sister styled warning of those who wish to imitate her lifestyle. This track is a highlight of the album both lyrically and sonically and is a real hard-hitter.

Just a few songs down the track list, 'Big Love' continues this theme of uncontrollability and extremities in emotions (if the title doesn't allude to that enough). Once again, we see the presentation of outside persona and inside struggles, as the first verse details:

Suki Waterhouse in the music video for 'Model, Actress Whatever', directed by Tyler Falbo.

Sometimes when I take a deep breath, It brings up all my sadness, But you wouldn't see it, How close I keep it.

Like in 'Nonchalant', these lyrics remind the listener that what you see at surface-level is not always accurate of what is happening behind the scenes - whether this is a loved one or your favourite celebrity. On occasion, this album feels as though it is Waterhouse's diary hidden as a spider's memoir, with her expression of vulnerability being paired with the discussion of the difficulty to share this. However, Waterhouse then extends this to the chaos that comes with hiding and pent up emotions with an Alice in Wonderland metaphor that bares this exact argument.

In an interview with NME, Waterhouse characterised the album as "a reminder to myself to bring yourself up and have that resilience. I always think of it as putting on a sparkling pink boa and still go out and not get hardened." And this truly summarises 'Memoir of a Sparklemuffin', in order to have this resurrecting effect to sparkle regardless of your hardships, one must reflect upon the past experiences to build up strength to do some. The album is reflective directly of Waterhouse's experiences in life, as well as in the public eye, and therefore needs to share all elements of that experience - naivety, vulnerability, fault and blame, in addition strength, performance, dreams and passions. When the title of this review says that Suki Waterhouse sparkles in this project, we mean in the multicoloured-sense. Waterhouse is an iconic IT girl that many of us admire, but this album shows her in a human, three-dimensional light. The scope of this project was large, but she rose to the occasion, and we've left for a stronger respect for Waterhouse, and celebrities, than ever before - and a new, unexpected love for this unique breed of spider.