Description
On Chrystia Cabrals fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transforms her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabrals 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 albums thematic forthrightness is echoed in its 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 2021s 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 its propulsive drum groove and anthemic chorus of I dont belong here, is the most potent embodiment of the albums 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 albums 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 producersThe 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 SPELLLINGs first duet on Mount Analogue, Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory turns Cabrals original piano demo for Alibi into the crunchy, riff-y version that appears on the record, while Zulus Braxton Marcellous gives Drain its sludgy heft. These parts arent just incorporated seamlessly into the album; they feel like an integral part of its universe.
Ultimately, though, Portrait of My Heart is nobodys record but Cabrals. She fearlessly draws the curtain back on parts of herself that shes never included
in SPELLLING beforeher 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. Its very much an open diary of all those sensations, she says.
Portrait of My Heart
Keep It Alive
Alibi
Waterfall
Destiny Arrives
Ammunition
Mount Analogue
Drain
Satisfaction
Love Ray Eyes
Sometimes
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