Spellling albums

2021

The Turning Wheel - 95%

               Singer Chrystia Cabral keeps progressing with her musical adventures, harnessing the hippy energy of her hometown of Berkley, Ca and translating it into dance music unlike anything in the musical landscape in the 2020’s. The formal perfection of “The Turning Wheel” is mind blowing after a couple of listens as if the best soul singers and divas of dance of the last several decades all collided into one- there are echoes of Donna Summer, Kate Bush, Fiery Furnaces, Bjork, Jane Siberry, Massive Attack, Madonna and Tori Amos. Like a traveling carnival ride of joy and full of captivating melodies, every song is uniquely hers but very different at the same time. Make no mistake, a lot of this is based on music theatre troupes- “Always” could be the soundtrack for a silent movie, “Emperor with an Egg” is some sort of soliloquy about running around in the forest (of your mind), “Legacy” displays her vocal range jumping octave upon octave, while “Revolution” very calmly states that she has revitalized her sound since her debut album, culminating in a majestic crescendo. And boy, has she ever!

               This is music that begs to be talked about, listened to, and pondered over. She has talked in interviews how many sci-fi books and other mind-expanding literature have informed her lyrics. How exactly does a song like “Magic Act” work- it starts as a reparative slow journey, morphing in to an 80’s metal guitar solo then ends as a truncated techno beat?? “Boys at School” does this same type of thing over an aching and yearning seven-minute journey that talks about high school bullying and its long-term effects. “Little Deer” as an opening track is perfect yet still odd and it will not leave your head after even one listen, and you replay it enough in your mind that you fall in love with it. Is this still Rock music...? If rock music is a candy-coated menagerie in our childhood dreams, perhaps. Maybe Cabral is not quite as masterfully psychedelic as Kramer or Dogbowl, but very close and the only real comparison I can think of when listening to the title track. As she states on her theatrical closer “Sweet Talk”: “I hear the musical words/ wait for the verses / the colorful voices/ on the radio.” Well, she may never be on the radio, as the music is quite eccentric, but I do believe this album will hold up long beyond the boundaries of this year well into the future.

Best Songs: Turning Wheel, Magic Act, Legacy, Revolution