Hello Reader,
Welcome back. How have you been?
Today, we’re going to delve into SPELLLING, the moniker of Bay Area experimental pop musician, singer, songwriter, and producer Chrystia Cabral. Yes, it is stylized in all caps with an additional L. Cabral was an elementary school teacher in 2015 when she began her musical career. Her debut album, Pantheon of Me (2017), was self-released and soon followed in 2019 by her well-praised studio debut via the lovely Sacred Bones Records, Mazy Fly, and in 2021 by The Turning Wheel. Whereas with Mazy Fly she exploded onto the scene and garnered positive reviews with critics and fans, with The Turning Wheel, SPELLLING further enhanced her reputation with another praised release. She was now on the radar of even more fans and those in music media. In 2023, SPELLLING released an album of re-recordings titled SPELLLING & The Mystery School.
And now, on March 28th, a new album, Portrait of My Heart, is out via Sacred Bones Records for your listening pleasure. From the album’s press release, Cabral states about the album, “I always want to prioritize the sound and build from there, and the sound didn’t need that grander, elaborate approach. We have the core band. We have drums, guitar, and synth. And that’s really what’s driving it.” The core band she refers to is Wyatt Overson on guitar, Patrick Shelley on drums, and Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass guitar, which forms the core band on this album. In addition, a great cast of musicians and engineers is brought along for this project.
Talking about the song, “Portrait of My Heart”, Cabral said, “When the lyrics for the title track 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, and more focused. 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.”
Giving credit where it’s due. Portrait of My Heart album credits:
- Chrystia Cabral – vocals, synthesizer, main songwriter
- Wyatt Overson – guitar
- Giulio Xavier Cetto – bass
- Patrick Shelley – drums
- Jaren Feeley – piano
- Braxton Marcellous – guitar on “Drain”
- Del Sol Quartet – strings
- Patrick McCrory (Turnstile) – guitar on “Alibi”
- Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi)- vocals on “Mount Analogue”
- String Arrangements by Ted Case
- Engineered by Maryam Qudos
- “Alib” engineered by Paul Mercer at Wright Way Studios
- Guitar on ‘Keep it Alive’, ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Sometimes’ engineered by Aidan Nelson
- Mixed by Drew Vandenberg at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA
- Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC
- Album art by Cinque Mubarak (Qlick)
- All songs written and produced by Chrystia Cabral
- Except “Sometimes” written by Kevin Shields
- Co-Producer: Drew Vandenberg – “Keep it Alive”, “Alibi”, “Waterfall”, “Ammunition”, “Mount Analogue”, “Drain”, “Satisfaction”
Co-Producer: Rob Bisel – “Portrait of My Heart” and “Destiny Arrives”
Co-Producer: Psymun – “Sometimes”, “Drain” and “Waterfall”
And now for some hype for your eyes and ears via SPELLLING’s YouTube channel, the titular track from the album, “Portrait of My Heart”:
(All credits and rights to SPELLLING)
“Alibi”:
(All credits and rights to SPELLLING)
The otherworldly setting in the video for the song, “Destiny Arrives”:
(All credits and rights to SPELLLING)
Overall, Portrait of My Heart is another good release from SPELLLING. I think it fits well into her discography. There’s a lot for your ears to get excited about from the excellent and titular album opener, “Portrait of My Heart,” to the final song, “Sometimes.” The latter is an excellent cover of the My Bloody Valentine song off of their outstanding Loveless (1991). As one will expect from a SPELLLING album, this is no concept album. Though the word love is used several dozen times within the lyrics, the songs are more intricate and themes are more explored than to simplify them as “love songs,” in my opinion. The album has a good amount of melodic diversity, from a more anthemic rock sound to heavy moments to quieter, slowed-down pop to ethereal soundscapes and other genres and sounds in between. Even featuring shifts that occur during songs. There are excellent composition choices for every song. Listener, I think your ears will love the experience. All of the featured musicians, artists, and engineers get their moments to shine from Wyatt Overson, adding a lot of rhythm and licks on guitar, Patrick Shelley providing rock-solid beats and tempo on drums, and Giulio Xavier Cetto laying down some great grooves. In addition, what the Del Sol Quartet adds via strings is not only a great concept in the melodic construction but also results in some fantastic moments in the songs they’re involved with. And when Jaren Feeley is on the piano, he also adds so damn much to the songs, catching your ears attention and not letting go. The “Mount Analogue” brings in Chaz Bear from Toro y Moi for the first dual vocal song on SPELLLING’s album, and their voices work well together. Here’s to hoping they record more together in the future. This album features solid engineering and production throughout.
Portrait of My Heart gets 4 out of 5 Scum Drops from me. It is early in the year, but I think this album most likely stays in this 4 range (72nd-83rd percentile of all new releases I in 2025) at year’s end. There’s a lot to like with this release. Some will find this to be SPELLLING’s best work yet. Add this album to your collection on the formats of your choosing.
Portrait of My Heart Track listing (song length)
- Portrait of My Heart (4:43)
- Keep It Alive (2:43)
- Alibi (3:18)
- Waterfall (2:52)
- Destiny Arrives (4:02)
- Ammunition (3:49)
- Mount Analogue (4:14)
- Drain (5:09)
- Satisfaction (2:10)
- Love Ray Eyes (3:34)
- Sometimes (4:28)
Total runtime: 38:02
I’ll always advocate that you take the time to listen to every album in its entirety. From start to finish, the listening process with Portrait of My Heart will take just under 40 minutes, less than an hour and a half if you listen twice back to back. Along the way, you’ll discover your own favorite songs without the influence or bias of others. After a few listens on my own, I found the songs highlighted in green font above to be my favorite songs on this album.
Check out SPELLLING’s tour info, merch and more at her site. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook, and listen to her music via Spotify, and Bandcamp.
Thank you for reading and supporting good music.
Until next time,
Alex
Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site: scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions!
Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com
