Bright Lights, Hoffs’s fourth studio album, was released on Baroque Folk Records in 2021.[103] The record was produced by Paul Bryan and features versions of songs by Nick Drake, Michael Nesmith, Richard Thompson, Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger, and other songwriters. The album includes “Name of the Game”, featuring Mann.[104] Jonathan Keefe of In Review Online wrote, “Hoffs is in fantastic voice throughout the album” and praised the versatility of her renditions.[105]
Her fifth solo album, 2023’s The Deep End, was produced by Peter Asher;[106] The album includes interpretations of songs by the Rolling Stones, Squeeze, and Lesley Gore and received favorable reviews; Lily Moayeri of Spin Magazine wrote, “Hoffs’ voice is immediately recognizable, clear and sweet, hitting all the notes she did some 40 years ago. But her singular interpretations are so unique, they sometimes render the songs unrecognizable—in a good way.”[107] Gary Graff of Ultimate Classic Rock wrote that the album was a “delight, a demonstration of good taste and guts with Hoffs sounding as beguiling as she did lighting ‘Eternal Flame’ or having a ‘Manic Monday’ more than 30 years ago”.[106]
Hoffs co-wrote songs for the Go-Go’s, Belinda Carlisle, and Bette Midler.[108] She sang on albums by artists such as Rufus Wainwright,[109] Travis[110] and the Lilith Fair: Celebration of Music compilation album (with Sarah McLachlin, Shawn Colvin, Emmylou Harris, and others).[111][112] In 1992, she won Best Female Rock Vocalist at the Pro L.A. Music Awards.[113]
Hoffs’s debut novel, This Bird Has Flown, a romantic comedy about a struggling musician, was published by Little Brown in 2023.[114][115][116] It received a favorable review from Beatriz Williams in the New York Times, who called it “the smart, ferocious, rock-chick redemption romance you didn’t know you needed”.[114] Positive critical commentary also came from Mark Weingarten in the Los Angeles Times,[117] Michael Schaub of NPR,[118] and from Kirkus Reviews.[119] Universal Pictures purchased the rights to the novel for a screen adaptation.[and Hoffs formed the core of the faux-British 1960s band Ming Tea after Myers left Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s.[121][122] With Myers developing the Austin Powers character he had created, and with Hoffs pausing her solo career, they first met to play informally and all adopted pseudonyms for the band – Sweet became Sid Belvedere, and Hoffs became Gillian Shagwell.[123] The trio played live at nightclubs in Los Angeles.[122][124] Myers’s then-wife, Robin Ruzan, encouraged him to write a film based on the character.[122] The result was Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, directed by Hoffs’s husband Jay Roach.[122][125] Ming Tea appeared in all three Austin Powers films and recorded the songs “BBC” and “Daddy Wasn’t There” for two of the soundtrack albums.[96]
With Matthew Sweet
Hoffs teamed with Sweet, as “Sid and Susie”, to record several cover versions of classic rock songs from the 1960s for their album Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (2006).[126] Hoffs and Sweet released a follow-up, Under the Covers, Vol. 2 in 2009, featuring songs from the 1970s by Fleetwood Mac, Carly Simon, and Rod Stewart, among others.[127] Under the Covers, Vol. 3 was released in 2013, featuring cover songs from the 1980s, the decade when both of their careers began; the album included covers of songs by the Smiths, the Pretenders, and Roxy Music.[128][129] In 2013, Hoffs collaborated with Sweet and Tim Robbins on a recording of the traditional song “Marianne” for the sea shanty–themed compilation Son of Rogues Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.[130]
With Travis
Hoffs was featured as a guest singer on Travis’s 2020 single “The Only Thing” from their ninth studio album, 10 Songs.Hoffs learned to play electric guitar on a Gibson SG.[15] Influenced by the Byrds and the Beatles, she changed to a Rickenbacker because she liked its “angly, bright sound” and purchased a 1960s model with black and white checked binding.[15] She used this on the early Bangles recordings, but after some work on the guitar that affected its feel, she bought a Rickenbacker 325.[15] She is depicted on the cover of All Over the Place holding her Rickenbacker 325V63. Musicologist Peter Mercer-Taylor observed that it was “a black and white 6-string with three pick-ups and a hole for a vibrato bar, though the bar is not in place. Shortly after its 1963 appearance, this had become John Lennon’s signature instrument.”[131]
Hoffs used the 325 on some of the band’s recordings, but found it hard to tune, and said that it “ended up being more of a video guitar”.[15] For some time, her main instrument was a borrowed Fender Telecaster, and she also used a Fender Stratocaster (including for live shows in 1984 and 1985); two Rickenbacker 350s and two Rickenbacker 620/12s (obtained during the Different Light sessions); and a Fritz Brothers Roy Buchanan Bluesmaster.[15] She contributed to the design of a Susanna Hoffs model of the Rickenbacker 350 released in 1988 and 1989.[15]
After the dissolution of the Bangles, Hoffs played a Taylor K22; she later worked with Taylor on the Susanna Hoffs Signature Series of guitars.[15] She also has a 1966 12-string Guild Starfire which she says provides an “incredible bright-but-warm sound”, as used for tracks on Doll Revolution.[15]Hoffs reportedly dated the actor Michael J. Fox for a short period in 1986, although both say they have no memory of this.[132][133] In 1988 she met the actor Donovan Leitch, and the pair were in a relationship that lasted for about two years until 1991.[134][135] She married filmmaker Jay Roach in 1993,[136] and they have two sons, born in 1995 and 1998.[137] Roach converted to Judaism when they married.[2][136] In a 2023 interview with Debbie Millman for Print magazine, Hoffs said, “In my life, it took many relationships to realize when I met Jay that that was the right partner for me.”[138Hoffs inspired the Los Angeles–based rock band the Three O’Clock to write the song “The Girl with the Guitar (Says Oh Yeah)” for their 1985 album Arrive Without Travelling.[139] In 2002, the alternative country artist Robbie Fulks wrote the paean “That Bangle Girl”.[140]
The Bangles are one of the most successful all-female rock bands.[141][142][143] Like their contemporaries the Go-Go’s, and Joan Jett and Suzi Quatro earlier, the Bangles composed songs and played instruments.[144] This made them unlike most popular women musical artists of the 1980s, who were principally vocalists.[144] The music historian Sean MacLeod posited that the success of the Go-Go’s and the Bangles as women in what were usually male roles in rock music opened a path for groups like Hole, Elastica and Dum Dum Girls.[144] The Bangles were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000,[145] and to the Goldmine Hall of Fame in 2013.[44] They were presented with the Icon Award at the 2015 She Rocks Awards, thirty years after the release of All Over the Place.[11991 When You’re a Boy 83 67 51 29 — 56
1996 Susanna Hoffs — — — — 50 —
2006 Under the Covers, Vol. 1
(with Matthew Sweet) 192 — — — — —
2009 Under the Covers, Vol. 2
(with Matthew Sweet) 106 — — — — —
2012 Someday — — — — — —
2013 Under the Covers, Vol. 3
(with Matthew Sweet) — — — — — 72
2021 Bright Lights — — — — — — [B]2023 The Deep End — — — — — —
2024 The Lost Record — — — 2015 Get a Room TV; singing “Eternal Flame” in a karaoke bar [189]2019 Bombshell Vocals in film score [190]2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame TV; inducting the Zombies into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [191]2020 Grammy Salute to Prince: Let’s Go Crazy TV; Manic Monday duet with Chris Martin [192]2022 Grammy Salute to Paul Simon: Homeward Bound TV; performing A Hazy Shade of Winter [193]2023 The Muppets Mayhem TV episode; guest star.