After releasing her pining full-length debut,
I Can't Let Go
, in 2022,
Suki Waterhouse
continued her acting career, appearing in the biopic Dalíland and as a member of the fictional TV band Daisy Jones & the Six while working on her ambitious music follow-up. A double-length album recorded with
producer
Brad Cook
, along with
Foxygen
's
Jonathan Rado
(
Weyes Blood
,
Father John Misty
),
Cigarettes After Sex
Greg Gonzalez
Rick Nowels
James Blake
Lana Del Rey
courtship.
Eli Hirsch
, and several others, including additional songwriting collaborators,
Memoir of a Sparklemuffin
greatly expands and dramatizes the sound and scope of her relationship laments, putting it in the territory of
and
Angel Olsen
's most extravagant works. Named for a brightly colored species of spider known for its elaborative courtship rituals,
sets the stage with "Gateway Drug." Beginning with a wispy, weary vocal, broken electric guitar chords, and spacey organ, sympathetic lyrics like "You're tired and jaded/You said you forgot how to love" precede the seductive offer, "Let me be your gateway drug," as the lights come up and the song launches itself into space with arena-sized drums and extra layers of distortion. This offer to test romantic waters begins a series of disappointments that put
Waterhouse
through the ringer in an assortment of ways throughout the set. Tracks including "Supersad" ("I look so much better when I don't care") and "Big Love" ("Who's left?/And who's gonna leave me next?") express their travails with catchy, driving indie rock, while a song like "My Fun" sounds like a playful tribute to the '70s singer/songwriter era, the lightly twangy "Lullaby" is quiet and drenched in dreamy reverb, and "Everybody Breaks Up Anyway" comes off like smoky piano cabaret. A theatrical aspect permeates
Sparklemuffin
, which is mostly populated with lush pop in the vein of the opener and includes songs that celebrate bad karma ("Lawsuit") and don't spare her ("Model, Actress, Whatever"). Numbering 18 songs in all,
closes with a big finish on the melodically soaring "To Love," and only then does she find what she was looking for. ~ Marcy Donelson