SPELLLING (aka Chrystia Cabral) announces her new album, Portrait of My Heart, out March 28th via Sacred Bones, and shares a video for the lead single, “Portrait of My Heart.” On Cabral’s fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transforms her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror, as her lyrics for Portrait of My Heart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approach of much of her previous work for something she says is “pointed into my human heart.” The result is the sharpest, most direct SPELLLING album to date, and its immediacy emphasizes the essential mutability of Cabral’s practice. 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.
In what became the genesis for the rest of Portrait of My Heart, the title track, with its 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 Cabral came up with the main melody, she found herself using the song as a tool to work through the anxiety she sometimes struggles with as a performer: “If this is what I’m supposed to be doing, and that I’ve chosen this life path, why does it cause me so much discomfort all the time?”
“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, 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.”
The accompanying video directed by Ambar Navarro explores the obsession that comes with making art when you’re deep in the hole of creativity and it consumes you.
Stream/Watch “Portrait of My Heart”
Before undertaking her tour for The Turning Wheel, Cabral assembled a band including core members Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass), and their ongoing collaboration has uncovered 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, named the Mystery School, 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.
However, Portrait of My Heart is also shaped significantly by its guest musicians. The original plan was to have a featured artist on every track; that idea was scrapped when Cabral realized some of the material was too personal to put in someone else’s mouth. But a few key features help shape the album. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) sings on “Mount Analogue,” the first true duet in the SPELLLING discography. 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” its sludgy heft. These parts aren’t just incorporated seamlessly into the album; they feel like an integral part of its 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. There’s a real generosity in that, as listeners may recognize themselves in Portrait of My Heart in a way they haven’t on past albums.
SPELLLING will be touring the US this coming spring, beginning with a special hometown headlining show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, before making stops in Los Angeles, Chicago, Brooklyn, Austin, and more. Tickets are on sale now and are available here.
Pre-order Portrait of My Heart
SPELLLING Tour Dates:
Fri. April 4 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Thu. April 24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Fri. April 25 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole
Sat. April 26 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar
Mon. April 28 – Austin, TX @ Parish
Tue. April 29 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Wed. April 30 – New Orleans, LA @ Santos
Fri. May 2 – Atlanta, GA @ The EARL
Sat. May 3 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
Sun. May 4 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Tue. May 6 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Fri. May 9 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Sat. May 10 – Amherst, MA @ The Drake
Mon. May 12 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
Tue. May 13 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Wed. May 14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
Thu. May 15 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
Sat. May 17 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
Mon. May 19 – Reno, NV @ The Holland Project
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]