SPELLLING

When Chrystia Cabral first conceived of “Portrait of My Heart,” the title track and spiritual core of her fourth full-length as SPELLLING, it was an eight-minute, multi-part epic, with a lengthy intro section inspired by The Cure. The grand sweep of the original arrangement made the song feel like an extension of Cabral’s previous album, the lavishly orchestrated The Turning Wheel. By contrast, the version that appears as the opening track on Portrait of My Heart comes in at a shade under five minutes, with an insistent drumbeat and an infectious earworm of a chorus, with Cabral belting “I don’t belong here” repeatedly over chugging rhythm guitar and an exuberant keyboard line.

That journey from first draft to final incarnation has a lot to say about Cabral’s evolution as an artist and as a person in the four years since The Turning Wheel was released. Portrait of My Heart marks a bold step into the future for the SPELLLING, one that sees Cabral pushing the project into new sonic territory while retaining the singular voice that has made her one of the most exciting songwriters of the past decade.

“When the lyrics for ‘Portrait’ came together, it really started to morph everything in this more energetic direction, instead of this more whimsical landscape that I’ve worked with before. It started to become more driven, higher energy, more focused,” Cabral explains. “And I have a big affection for it because of that. I love that it feels like it withstood transformation, which is something I always want to aspire to with things that I make. I want them to have this sense of timelessness. It could exist like this, or like that, or like this, but this is the one for right now. It felt cool to think about doing something bolder and with more energy.”

Portrait of My Heart positively vibrates with that energy. From the title track to the pop-punkish banger “Alibi,” the slyly metallic “Drain,” the ecstatic “Love Ray Eyes,” and beyond, the album is the most immediate SPELLLING release to date. With her “Mystery School” backing band playing behind her, Cabral taps into a directness that feels new to the project. It’s not that the scope has shrunk since the grandiosity of The Turning Wheel; these songs simply demanded a different set of tools.

“I always want to prioritize the sound and build from there, and the sound didn’t need that grander, elaborate approach,” Cabral says. “We have the core band. We have drums, we have guitar, and we have synth. And that’s really what’s driving it.”