Portrait of my Heart by SPELLLING
#7
For many people who follow music even a little closely, the release of The Turning Wheel in the Summer of 2021 was a pretty rapturous moment. Equally symphonic and mysterious, it was a record full of meticulously crafted arrangements, lyrics that were both whimsical and revealing, and Chrystia Cabral’s emotive, distinct voice. Additionally, the record had the most complex and rewarding melodies I had heard in pop music in a long while - see the chameleonic and genius chorus of opener “Little Deer.” So… what does one do after making such a painstakingly gorgeous, and unfathomably difficult-to-make album?
In Portrait of my Heart’s case, the answer seems to be simply letting loose a little bit. This time around, Cabral went in an alt-rock direction without compromising any of her distinct, witchy vibe or melodic prowess, and the results are fantastic - and so much fun. The cool symphonic arrangements and synth-work are still there in spades (“Destiny Arrives”!!!!!!), but are now accompanied by energetic underlying rock instrumentation, which works in Cabral’s favor to bring some propulsion to her sound. The result is somewhere between 90’s grunge, pop-punk, nu metal, and Disney channel rock - and is a fusion that is ever so close to my heart.
I think that a lot of the charm of this album just comes with how much earnestness Cabral approaches this project with. She wears her influences on her sleeve a bit by bravely covering My Bloody Valentine’s “Sometimes” (and doing a great job with it!). Across the project, her passionate vocals on the choruses of tracks like “Alibi” and “Love Ray Eyes” elevate them to heroic proportions and save them from flaccid nostalgia. As she navigates “love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation,” in her words, her earnest delivery of these emotions makes you feel like you’re right there with her - being a wide-eyed spectator and subject of these grandiose, universal feelings. It may be a more visceral, low-hanging fruit than The Turning Wheel, and it could just be the same emotional tricks that have been played on us by notorious pop-rock feeling-feelers like Paramore and Alanis Morissette for decades - but it really does feel so right, both then and now.