In an era of music defined by 80s inspirations, Suki Waterhouse’s “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” takes distinct notes from the artist’s love for 70s rock and 90s ballads. Yet, its colossal 18-track runtime struggles to keep an interesting pace, soured by rehashed themes and tunes.
The opening song “Gateway Drug” is a perfect introduction for what the album hopes to be: a trippy, 70s-dipped collection of Waterhouse’s life, spanning across fame and love.
While the lyricism is rather weak, the track sets up a perfect tone with stunning bass and wispy-coated vocals from Waterhouse.
The follow-up song, “Supersad” also struggles to bring deeper meanings into Waterhouse’s sophomore album, but its addictive sound makes me, as the lyrics say, “look the other way.”
A later track in the album, “My Fun” continues to fuel the throwback tunes, this time taking hints from The Beatles’ more relaxed tracks. While it is an enjoyable listen, like the first two tracks, the lyrics feel like white noise.
While there are a few instances where this isn’t the case, much of “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” has this problem, either relying on similar ideas throughout several tracks or using cliche wordplay in hopes of striking emotion.
The fourth track, “Faded,” is one of those exceptions. The album doesn’t always use the “Memoir” part of its title to its fullest, but “Faded” does attempt to show a different side to Waterhouse that other tracks fail to bring to the table.
Focusing on Waterhouse’s past relationship with Bradley Cooper, the duo met when Waterhouse had just turned 20, Cooper being 37. The song delves into the deceptive nature of their controversial relationship, especially with lyrics such as “Living in a movie ‘cause you look just like James Dean from the internet.”
The song delivers a floaty, leisurely pace while wrapping listeners into its stomach-churning narrative.
Other songs such as “Nonchalant,” “Model, Actress, Whatever” and “Could’ve Been A Star” also offer engaging stories from Waterhouse’s complicated relationship between her stage persona and love life to how the industry twists and demands perfect legacies from all of its artists.
While it is phenomenal from a lyrical standpoint, “Model, Actress, Whatever” is the first instance of the album’s biggest problem: its rehashing nature.
The album is overwhelming in content, with many songs feeling like filler or reworkings of previous tunes. “Model, Actress, Whatever” may read pretty, but its sound is merely a slowed down, reiteration of “Nonchalant.”
Because of this along with the extended runtime, many songs end up becoming forgettable, slowing the pace of the album to a crawl as listeners beg for a sliver of uniqueness.
Luckily, highly memorable tracks such as “OMG” and “Helpless” give the latter half of the album a bit more life, keeping it from flattening the experience.
One of the more interesting aspects of “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” comes with “To Get You,” a song that represents a switch in time, harboring in several tracks that include 90s tones from bands like The Cranberries and Pixies. It doesn’t land as well as the more 70s-inspired tracks, but it’s a breath of fresh air in an album that does become stale at times.
Waterhouse’s sophomore album struggles to find an exciting identity lyrically, but its lively, time-capsule sound contains enough distinctive tracks to keep the collection of songs from falling to the wayside.
“Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” was released Sept. 13.