Suki Waterhouse: I Can't Let Go [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

I Can't Let Go is Suki Waterhouse's first full-length album, made with producer Brad Cook for Sub Pop. It arrived the same year as her Milk Teeth EP and set up her turn as Karen Sirko in Daisy Jones & the Six.

About the album

Most people get to pick one career. Suki Waterhouse, raised in Chiswick in London, had already done the covers of Vogue and a run of films from Love, Rosie to Detective Pikachu before she turned up on Sub Pop, of all places, with a quietly lovely indie pop record. She was discovered while shopping in London at 16, and music had been running alongside the modelling and acting ever since.

Producer Brad Cook built the album around her hushed, smoky voice, playing guitar, bass and keyboards himself, with Alex Farrar mixing and adding guitar and keys. "Moves" glides in on a lazy, sunlit groove, "Devil I Know" and "Put Me Through It" are slow-burning heartbreak songs, and "Melrose Meltdown" has a breezy West Coast shimmer. "My Mind" and "On Your Thumb" keep the mood intimate, while "Wild Side," "Slip" and "Blessed" round things out with the soft-focus glow of late-night drives and old soft rock records.

Her second album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, followed in 2024. This one is for anyone who likes their heartbreak delivered in a whisper rather than a shout, which is also how we'd like the shop stereo on a Monday morning.

Also at Kops: more Suki Waterhouse on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP1465), a reissue of the 2022 album.