Memoir of a Sparklemuffin Review

The ambition is a clear step up. Where the debut had one sound, this has half a dozen, moving between a country ballad, a disco pulse, a glam stomp and the reverbed guitar pop she started with. Some of that works. Model, Actress, Whatever is funny and self aware and the best writing on the album. Supersad has a real chorus. Blackout Drunk is properly pretty. But eighteen songs across fifty seven minutes is far too many for material of this consistency, and the variety exposes what was hidden before: the melodies are often ordinary, and the lyrics reach for a candour they do not quite deliver, staying at the level of a mood rather than an incident.

The production is capable throughout and occasionally lovely. Cut in half this would be a good record. At full length it is a long sit with three or four things worth returning to, and a lot of pleasant space between them.