The skyline falls as I try to make sense of it all. Seven years ago, Suki Waterhouse quite literally changed my brain chemistry with the song Good Looking. There is a small but significant number of songs that hit us at exactly that moment when we do not even know what is happening to us, and then remain forever tied to a version of ourselves we can no longer return to. Today, when I went back to that video, I caught myself crying. The same thing has been happening to me for years with Lana Del Rey’s Video Games. That is just one of the reasons why I could give up everything in life except music. It allows me to return to the past and embrace a version of myself I no longer know how to reach in any other way. This year, it seems, I have many time machines waiting for me, not only with Lana and the album Stove, but also with Suki and her third studio album, Loveland.
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A few weeks ago, Suki Waterhouse released the single Back in Love. “The phrase ‘Back in Love’ carries a lot of meaning,” Suki said. “For me, it is about returning to my own sense of self after going through a shift in identity.” In her first release under Island Records, the indie musician speaks precisely about that moment when we slowly find our way back to ourselves after getting lost somewhere along the way. Back in Love is everything you would normally expect from Suki: her gentle voice, the haunting sound of guitars, and a soft rhythm usher us into the new era the artist has announced. One that feels more confident and definitely more emotionally stable, without losing the fragility and raw energy that define her.
All of that serves as an introduction to her third album, Loveland, arriving on July 10. “My new album Loveland was born in the space between who I was and who I am becoming. One part of me still longs for the thrill of romance, for illusion, for the feeling of being carried by something. Another part is drawn to something quieter, something that can last. Something true. I cannot wait for this album to become yours too,” Suki said in her announcement last night. The album’s second single, Tiny Raisin, comes out this Friday and, judging by the snippets circulating on social media, I have a feeling it will be one of my favorites.
In this new phase of her life, it is impossible not to mention her relationship with Robert Pattinson, who has certainly already been an inspiration for her music, so we assume the new album will also reveal something about how the two of them function today, as young parents, public figures, and people trying to balance an accelerating career, a life that is becoming ever more complex, and the need to find something that can last beyond all that chaos. Their relationship has never been overly exposed in the media, but it has always seemed like a constant in the background of everything, and unlike many celebrity couples, it has never felt the need to explain or prove itself.
This album comes to me as a reminder that it is completely okay to be somewhere in between. In the euphoria surrounding the arrival of a new release, I realized that I had never really listened to her previous album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, properly. I played it casually, without giving it the attention someone deserves when their voice has been hitting me for years. Now is the moment to return to it. Because, honestly, I myself am somewhere between my old self and this new version that is only just trying to define itself. It seems to me that returning to the old version of Suki and getting to know this new one might help me better feel and understand the moment I am in myself. And yes, I absolutely do not know where all of this will take me, so stay tuned folks.