Photo Credit: Stephanie Pia
At a time where revivalism has become all the rage, with each once towering subgenre crash-landing into nostalgic tropes, the greater pop culture has arrived at a crossroads where all bets remain fairly safe. Over-reliant on production and aesthetic, rap and electronic music have shape-shifted into an almost monotone amalgamation of the same. Meanwhile, post-punk and emo have reverted back to their old selves; scene kids have now grown up, but the spirit remains kindred if not all too reasonably subdued. Yet a greater question remains: can a 2000s revival sound feel fresh again? Against this backdrop, Chrystia “Tia” Cabral’s visionary project SPELLLING is known for reaching into the early aughts with surgical precision, weaving R&B and alternative rock – the chart-climbing dual forces of that time – into something both eerily familiar and wholly reimagined.
From her humble beginnings with 2017’s Pantheon of Me and 2019’s Mazy Fly – both home-studio experiments built on minimalist loops and ambient folk textures – to the impeccably produced baroque pop of 2021’s breakthrough The Turning Wheel, Cabral has continually expanded her musical universe with eccentric exuberance. 2023’s fork-in-the-road SPELLLING & the Mystery School saw her reimagining her ornate chamber-pop fantasies with a full ensemble, thus revealing her vision in widescreen and drawing comparisons to Kate Bush in both ambition and artistry. While this is no small feat, her previous releases effectively saw her name-checked in the lineage of legendary pop-rock mystics – a slope so slippery, it is almost impossible to recover from.
Instead, Portrait of My Heart feels like a leap forward in time – a bold entry in a future scrapbook of sounds once deemed bygone. On her spellbinding fifth album, Cabral successfully emphasises muscular rhythms and overdriven chords without sacrificing the theatrical flair that defines her work. Indeed, Cabral still composes in solitude, but sharing her demos with Wyatt Overson on guitar, Patrick Shelley on drums, and Giulio Xavier Cetto on bass helped reveal not only this project’s true contours, but SPELLLING’s live, organic edge overall. Under the watchful guidance of The Turning Wheel mixing engineer Drew Vandenberg, and SZA/Yves Tumor producers Rob Bisel and Psymun respectively, the SPELLLING ensemble steers away from sprawling epics into a sound that feels more streamlined but equally daring.
Yet the album remains Cabral’s own, as she carefully pulls back the veil on her most private fears – of not fitting in, of building emotional walls, of hurtling into and out of intimacy. “It’s very much an open diary of all those sensations,” Cabral explains in an interview with The Line of Best Fit; effectively making this project her boldest, most personal statement to date. As such, the opening title track finds Cabral turning inward, pairing her most candid lyrics with direct, guitar-infused hooks. Interwoven strings, piano flourishes, and her ever-dynamic “I don’t belong here” chants, build to an exhilarating crescendo that captures profound alienation. Keep it Alive divulges in an energetic direction that comes at odds with Cabral’s signature whimsical sensitivities – its coda, “Get me out of this ordinary life”, rings with an honesty that feels newly unearthed, as if Cabral herself has just come to terms with it.
That newfound openness doesn’t dilute her edge, however. On the confrontational Alibi, Turnstile’s Pat McCrory transforms her demo piano sketch into a riff-driven rocker, laced within Cabral’s surreal sonic lens: “You’re a psychopath / And I loved you for that,” she sings with icy resolve. It’s a blistering reminder that vulnerability, for Cabral, is never weakness but a source of strength. With that in mind, Waterfall and single Destiny Arrives soften the pace with lush chord changes and tender vocal flourishes, showcasing Cabral’s signature vibrato. Ammunition marries smoky jazz vocals and hair-metal dramatics, erupting into a triumphant guitar solo; and Mount Analogue becomes a quietly intimate duet with Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear. Elsewhere, Zulu’s Braxton Marcellous sludgy guitars meet luminous synths and catchy melodies on Side-B’s Drain, converging mid-’90s grunge riffs into a psychedelic crescendo – like a séance for an alternate timeline where neo-soul meets post-grunge, this gothic love song spirals into psych-metal chaos, and perfectly exemplifies the marvelous duality of Cabral’s eccentric vision.
Perhaps the album’s most metallic highlight comes with Satisfaction, a jolt of raw electricity that begins with a dreamlike shimmer, only to plunge headlong into thrash metal chaos. Gnarly guitar work, snarling distortion, and Cabral’s soaring vocals collide in an explosive climax, complete with a ferocious solo. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Love Ray Eyes persists in signature avant-pop eccentricity against the album’s darker textures, where its experimental flourishes haunt the overriding heavy atmosphere. Closer Sometimes, a cover of My Bloody Valentine’s very own Loveless ender, reimagines the original’s rhythmic churn with gauzy fuzz and wobbling synths – clearing space for Cabral’s disarming voice to gleam through the haze into an emotive resolve.
Despite its nods to familiarity, Portrait of My Heart doesn’t walk a tidy line between Cabral’s past selves. Instead, it disorients and delights, smuggling fragments of one genre into the bloodstream of another. Borne from a vulnerable place, Cabral produces a fearless amalgamation of sounds that ring endlessly, luminous and unguarded – tearing through her self-imposed boundaries with defiance, grit, and a very human kind of fire.
8/10
Standout Tracks: Portrait of My Heart, Destiny Arrives, Drain
For Fans Of: Weyes Blood, Angel Olsen, Julia Holter
Written by: Dimitris Vasileias
