SPELLLING — SPELLLING & The Mystery School — Album Review
Alternative | Experimental | Pop
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
The musical moniker of California-based experimental pop artist Chrystia Cabral, known as SPELLLING, was somebody that I was fortunate enough to come across in the summer of 2021, during the release of her third studio album The Turning Wheel. Through this album, I got what I still look back on as one of the most unique musical experiences of that year, with the gorgeously enriched pop sound that the album possessed feeling very akin to the likes of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, an element that I was certainly a fan of.
Nevertheless, The Turning Wheel came at a time where SPELLLING’s sound had drastically changed, diverting away from the more electronic influences of her previous two records, 2017’s Pantheon of Me, and 2019’s Mazy Fly, for a more whimsical and almost classical vibe. Of course, the electronic elements were still present on her third album, but it goes without saying that The Turning Wheel, fittingly, was a turning point in SPELLING’s musical catalogue.
Where SPELLLING decided to go next with her fourth studio album, titled SPELLLING & The Mystery School has quite the interesting bit of context behind it, which worked out to be very useful for somebody like myself, who had discovered the artist through her previous album.
In essence, the way that SPELLLING & The Mystery School works as an album feels reminiscent of something like a greatest hits record. However, it sort of isn’t. What this album is instead is a project that reimagines some of SPELLLING’s most iconic tracks, giving it a raw and unfiltered feel that also makes it feel almost like a live album. In short, is was the perfect opportunity for me to clue myself in on the musical journey that the artist has had up to this point.
On top of the above making for a very unique factor about the album, the unified sound that each of the tracks (those that span across three whole albums) feel far more unified is a very satisfying experience to behold.
While there are elements from all three of those albums that mesh together on this record, the overall tone does feel most closely tied to The Turning Wheel, which makes the most sense as its the more recent album leading up to this one.
That being said, while the chance to listen to the older tracks in this new sonic framework was delightful, I did find it a bit confusing that four of the eleven tracks found on this album had been picked from The Turning Wheel, as while there are just enough differences to make the renditions on SPELLLING & The Mystery School distinguishable from those versions on the previous album, they do still feel quite similar (though I do absolutely love some of the little nuances on these new renditions, such as the guitar on “Boys at School” for instance).
Nevertheless, the approach taken towards this project is something that I wish more artists did. It takes the once dead idea of a greatest hits record, and bending it towards something far more interesting. And for that, we have another record from SPELLLING that stands as a year-defining moment.
Sacred Bones Records
