Welcome back to this week’s Music Review! This week, we’ll be travelling to an enchanted forest in search of a sparklemuffin… let’s see what we find! Held weekly on Wednesdays, Music Review is hosted by our amazing Music Directors, Alex and Rosie. We reserve this time to listen to new music from all genres and artists, then share our thoughts on what we heard (and any sneaky FCCs)!
Before we dive into this week’s music review, I would like to invite you to imagine yourself walking through a dense forest full of charming willow trees. The sun is setting into a deep, velvety purple and red sky, while fireflies light up the atmosphere. Dew covers the forest floor, glistening in the moonlight from a recent rain as the stars begin to twinkle in the sky. As you approach a clearing, you are greeted by a cheerful, intriguing little creature, the sparklemuffin…
This is what I envision when I listen to Suki Waterhouse’s Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, the second album from a British pop artist, model, actress… whatever. Released on Sub Pop Records in September 2024, London-born Suki Waterhouse delivers a range of styles across this record, from swooning love ballads to powerful pop anthems. She combines celestial sounds with strong storytelling to produce an amazing record, all while preparing to welcome her first child into the world.
Photo: Rick Kern / Getty Images
While upholding a range of roles as an actress, model, and mother, Suki decided to add music to her wheelhouse in 2022 with the release of her debut album, I Can’t Let Go. She quickly grew to fame, touring with Father John Misty, having a song go viral on TikTok overnight, and selling out her first headlining “Coolest Place in the World” tour. Suki is a beast of an artist and entrepreneur, and doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon.
Caught in the whirlwind of exciting changes, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin acts as a collection of Suki’s experiences and feelings navigating her new career and family. She states that the production of the album was a kind of metamorphosis for her, but the typical image of a butterfly didn’t align with how she felt. The album received its name after Suki was researching Spiders one night and stumbled upon the Maratus jactatus, a type of peacock spider native to Australia. Cleverly nicknamed the “Sparklemuffin” by a PhD student, the little spider is known for its exquisite colors and its cute mating dance. The part that stuck out to Suki was the fact that if the female spider was not impressed by the male, she ate him. I agree with Suki; kind of badass tbh.
We are welcomed to the world of the sparklemuffin through “Gateway Drug”, a fitting opening track to prepare us for our adventure. A slow melody builds up excitement leading up to “Supersad,” an up-tempo song encouraging listeners to get up off their ass and snap out of it: “There’s no point in being supersad”. The song captures a perfect, easy, breezy, sunny 90s rock sound, reminiscent of something you would hear in a movie like Clueless.
The playful energy continues as we move through “Blackout Drunk” with a bouncy anthem describing a messy night out with a date, and knowing that your intuitions about someone were right. Suki’s delivery on the line “Cause I can’t wait to tell you all the shitty things that you’ve done” is one of the catchiest lines I’ve heard in a long time. It’s quick and flows so well that you feel a sense of pride if you can keep up with her beat.
Memoir of a Sparklemuffin expands across 18 tracks, but the variety of sounds and styles makes it fun and easy to digest. Animated songs with “My Fun”, “Blackout Drunk”, and “Supersad” are balanced with introspective tracks like “Model, Actress, Whatever”, “To Get You,” and “To Love”. Some tracks make you want to break out on the dance floor, while others are more fitting for a slow dance. I also just really wanted to give a special shoutout to “OMG”. I still listen to that song religiously 2 years later.
I am definitely a bit biased reviewing this album, as I fell in love with it after it was released. I listened to the album so much that I actually went to the Sparklemuffin tour back in 2024! I went alone, and it is still one of my favorite concerts to this day. The stage design was so memorable; I still dream about it sometimes. The image that I painted at the beginning of the blog is almost exactly how they designed her stage. Over the stage, a giant disco ball hung over the sparklemuffin forest while a shining spiderweb spanning ceiling to floor hung behind her. Her outfits were reminiscent of 70s and 80s rockstar fashion, perhaps influenced by her role in Daisy Jones and the Six. Dazzling outfits combined feathers and bright pops of color. And the cherry on top, she jumped on tour less than 6 months after having her first child with actor Robert Pattinson. She’s unstoppable!!
Favorite Tracks :
OMG (!!!)
Think Twice
My Fun
To Love
To Get You
Big Love
EXPLICIT TRACKS:
Blackout Drunk (E)
Faded (E)
Model, Actress, Whatever (E)
Lawsuit (E)
To Love (E)