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On Chrystia Cabral's fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transforms

her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabral's lyrics for Portrait of My

Heart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approach

of much of her previous work for something pointed into her human heart. The

album's thematic forthrightness is echoed in it's arrangements, making it the

sharpest, most direct SPELLLING album to date. 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.

The title track, with it's 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 the main melody emerged, Cabral used the song as a tool

to process her anxiety as a performer and opted for a tighter, more rock-oriented

composition. This transformation mirrors the album's broader shift toward energy

and immediacy, driven by the core band of Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass), whose collaboration uncovers 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 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.

Key guest contributions further shape the album. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) delivers

SPELLLING's first duet on "Mount Analogue," 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" it's sludgy

heft. These parts aren't just incorporated seamlessly into the album; they feel like

an integral part of it's 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.