Suki Waterhouse

With a vocal style marked by weary inflections and an underlying sense of discontent, Suki Waterhouse blends retro-pop that feels both worn and romantic, layered with ample reverb and firm melodic lines. Early self-released tracks such as the 2016 single "Brutally" and its 2017 follow-up "Good Looking" drew enough attention to secure her a place on Sub Pop. Balancing that development with ongoing screen work across film and television, the multi-hyphenate artist issued her first full-length effort for the label, I Can't Let Go, during the opening months of 2022. By year's end the Milk Teeth EP gathered those initial recordings alongside newer material, while 2023 saw the release of a split 7" with Belle and Sebastian featuring the track "Every Day's a Lesson in Humility." Her second album arrived in 2024 as the expansive double set Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, whose rich arrangements and emotional scope invited comparison to Lana Del Rey.

Born in Hammersmith, London and raised in the Chiswick area, Alice Suki Waterhouse entered modeling at sixteen after a chance discovery by a clothing retailer in the capital. Before reaching twenty she had already appeared in campaigns for prominent fashion houses and on international covers of Vogue and Elle. Her screen career began modestly with a small part in the 2012 feature Pusher; by 2016 she had advanced to a Bennet sister in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and a brief appearance in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, the same year she issued the acoustic ballad "Brutally" on her own This Rough Magic imprint.

Further television and film roles followed in 2017 with The White Princess miniseries and the lead in the independent picture The Girl Who Invented Kissing. She joined the ensemble of Assassination Nation the next year and continued accumulating credits into the following decade, among them Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York in 2019 and the Simon Barrett-directed Séance in 2021. Throughout this period she continued to drop occasional self-released singles, including 2017's "Good Looking" and 2019's "Coolest Place in the World," which together accumulated tens of millions of streams.

While maintaining her acting schedule, Waterhouse joined the Sub Pop roster in 2021 after completing sessions for her debut album with Grammy-nominated producer Brad Cook, whose prior credits include Bon Iver and Snail Mail. I Can't Let Go reached stores in April 2022, shortly before she appeared in the Amazon series Daisy Jones & the Six. That September she released the standalone single "Nostalgia," co-written and produced by John Mark Nelson, and in November she issued the Milk Teeth EP, which collected five early recordings plus the new track "Neon Signs." June 2023 brought another Sub Pop Singles Club release, the collaboration "Every Day's a Lesson in Humility" with Belle and Sebastian.

Returning to the studio with Cook for her follow-up, Waterhouse also enlisted Jonathan Rado of Foxygen, Greg Gonzalez of Cigarettes After Sex, Rick Nowels, Eli Hirsch of courtship., and additional contributors. The resulting double album, titled after a vividly colored spider species noted for its elaborate mating displays, presented her most ornate productions and broadest dramatic range to date; Memoir of a Sparklemuffin appeared on Sub Pop in September 2024.