Spellling - Portrait of My Heart CD
On Chrystia Cabral's fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transforms
her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabral's lyrics for Portrait of My
Heart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approach
of much of her previous work for something pointed into her human heart. The
album's thematic forthrightness is echoed in it's arrangements, making it the
sharpest, most direct SPELLLING album to date. From the dark minimalism of
her earliest music to the lavishly orchestrated prog-pop of 2021's The Turning
Wheel to this newly energetic expression of her creative spirit, Cabral has proved
again and again that SPELLLING can be whatever she needs it to be.
The title track, with it's propulsive drum groove and anthemic chorus of "I don't
belong here," is the most potent embodiment of the album's turn toward emotional directness. Once the main melody emerged, Cabral used the song as a tool
to process her anxiety as a performer and opted for a tighter, more rock-oriented
composition. This transformation mirrors the album's broader shift toward energy
and immediacy, driven by the core band of Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass), whose collaboration uncovers new
contours of the SPELLLING sound. Cabral still writes and demos in isolation, but
presenting the songs for Portrait of My Heart to her bandmates helped her discover
their eventual lively, organic forms. So did working with a trio of producers-The
Turning Wheel mixing engineer Drew Vandenberg, SZA collaborator Rob Bisel,
and Yves Tumor producer Psymun.
Key guest contributions further shape the album. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) delivers
SPELLLING's first duet on "Mount Analogue," Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory
turns Cabral's original piano demo for "Alibi" into the crunchy, riff-y version that
appears on the record, while Zulu's Braxton Marcellous gives "Drain" it's sludgy
heft. These parts aren't just incorporated seamlessly into the album; they feel like
an integral part of it's universe.
Ultimately, though, Portrait of My Heart is nobody's record but Cabral's. She fearlessly draws the curtain back on parts of herself that she's never included
in SPELLLING before-her feelings of being an outsider, her overly guarded
nature, the way she can throw herself recklessly into intimate relationships
and then cool on them just as quickly. "It's very much an open diary of all those
sensations," she says.
Label: Sacred Bones
UPC: 843563183601
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Track List
- Portrait of My Heart
- Keep It Alive
- Alibi
- Waterfall
- Destiny Arrives
- Ammunition
- Mount Analogue
- Drain
- Satisfaction
- Love Ray Eyes
- Sometimes