Even at her most sonically direct, Sacred Bones’ SPELLLING remains an art-pop auteur like no other. With her fourth mainline LP – Portrait of My Heart – the Bay Area artist is exploring the uncharted sounds of alternative rock while maintaining the symphonic, often bewitching qualities of her signature style.
Somewhere between Kate Bush and a Disney soundtrack, The Turning Wheel (2021) saw Chrystia Cabral’s transition from spooky ambient pop (Pantheon of Me, Mazy Fly) to progressive, psychedelic compositions that channeled Pagan poetry to utopian effect. It remains a gorgeous, career-defining work; songwriting, production, performances, all state-of-the-art in execution and scope, delivering a project more accomplished than anyone, maybe even Cabral herself, could have anticipated.
It’s since become a difficult work to follow. Persevering with live instrumentation, Spellling & The Mystery School (2023) reimagines a collection of past tunes – from Pantheon of Me’s ‘Cherry’ to Mazy Fly’s ‘Haunted Water’ – with looser, more organic band dynamics. Cabral’s ultimate pivot to rock’n’roll thus comes as no surprise for those following her progression.
The titular opening track – ‘Portrait of My Heart’ – announces this direction with a tight, gothic interplay of brooding bass and paranoid percussion. Cabral’s falsettos remain untampered in their ethereality, bringing a lighter whimsical tone that juxtaposes the stark instrumentation. The immediate impression is that of a Disney princess gone rogue, her anthemic cries of “I don’t belong here” met with orchestral swells that characterise much of the album’s euphoric hooks.
Subsequent tracks follow a similar pattern: ‘Alibi’ shifts and bends with guitar theatrics before reaching its straight-edged pop-punk chorus. The guest contributions of Turnstile guitarist, Pat McCrory, are pertinent throughout, imbuing the arrangement with colourful intensity. Meanwhile, ‘Keep It Alive’ combines pop-punk melodies with progressive guitar lines to resemble, in all the best ways, the score for a Sonic the Hedgehog level.
Sequentially, the tracklist builds on this 1-2-3 punch to deliver a compilation of raw thoughts, rather than a cohesive narrative. Likewise, the tracks are generally shorter in length, trading symphonic slow-burners for explosive bursts of energy.
Through left-field synth passages and orchestral flourishes, however, Cabral and her band still integrate progressive elements reminiscent of past work. With the support of returning band members – Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass) – Portrait marries its tighter alt-rock direction with whimsical dashes. Take ‘Waterfall’, for example, where a sunkissed, eighties guitar line meets Cabal’s expressive vocals, her usual prog-pop odyssey condensed to a concise three-minute runtime.
Standout single ‘Destiny Arrives’ provides another example, channelling its live sound towards a Turning Wheel-like spiritual proclamation. The end-result is immediately euphoric – a stylistic midpoint sure to please all listeners. Similarly, ‘Ammunition’ delivers slow-burning chamber pop before exploding with an emphatic guitar solo. Meanwhile, ‘Mountain Analogue’ – featuring Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear – strays the line between blue-eyed soul and trip-hop, a downtempo synth line intruding upon its delicate storytelling.
Following this sequence is ‘Drain’ – Portrait’s equivalent to ‘Boys at School’. Five-minutes long, it commences with a cacophony of sprung-out guitars before giving way to a commanding, yet tender vocal performance. The heaviest and longest track by far, Zulu guitarist Braxton Marcellous imbues the track with a devastating sludge, Cabral’s vocals forming the inspired counterpoint.
Similar to Radiohead’s ‘I Might Be Wrong’, the track concludes with a downtempo breakdown comprising flailing falsettos and psychedelic guitarwork. In execution, however, the abrupt transition hinders, rather than reinforces, the song’s simmering intensity. The same can be said for much of the album’s final third; the likes of ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Love Ray Eyes’, while compelling, conclude before reaching their final form.
Thankfully, the album’s closing track – ‘Sometimes’ (via My Bloody Valentine) – is a mesmerising experience that breathes intensity to the final second. Cabral’s version continues a rich heritage of reinterpretations, best exemplified by BetrayerXD’s legendary acoustic cover linked below.
Instead of stripping ‘Sometimes’ to its acoustic essence, SPELLLING perseveres with its hefty, psychedelic textures, thereby amplifying the song’s power through a heart-wrenching vocal performance. Appropriately allotted backup vocals fill the occasional gap between lyrical passages, while Cabral’s impassioned vocals spotlight the song’s obscured poetry.
It’s a fitting finale that encapsulates the album’s strengths and weaknesses. Following the elaborate symphonics of The Turning Wheel, Portrait is refreshingly lucid and direct, leaning into Cabral’s versatility as a performer. Unshakeable, however, is the sensation of Portrait being a stop-gap, rather than the next big step. ‘Sometimes’, in this respect, is simultaneously breathtaking and familiar – lacking the wonder inherent to SPELLLING’s past work.
In keeping with the Turnstile connection, however, you’ve maybe “gotta see it live to get it.” For what the studio recordings (sometimes) lack in raw dynamics, they often make up for in vocal performances ranking among Cabral’s best. In turn, Portrait of My Heart is true to its title; as SPELLLING’s most direct work thus far, it provides a tasteful counterpoint to her past discography, while delivering much-needed catharsis.
