Chrystia Cabral's third album as
Spellling takes her bewitching, genre-blurring sound in a more organic direction while retaining the magical, fantasy-inspired themes that made her previous releases stand out. Just as
Mazy Fly was a major departure from the loop-based avant-folk and hazy soul of Pantheon of Me, much of
The Turning Wheel moves away from
Mazy Fly's darkwave and gothic influences, expanding on its more progressive pop elements instead. Realized with the help of a cast of 31 musicians, the album's arrangements are intricate and pristinely focused -- the messier experimental impulses of Cabral's prior records are absent here. On the album's more theatrical moments, she sings like a hybrid of
Kate Bush and
Michael Jackson, and it doesn't seem far-fetched to imagine her reaching a similar level of ambition in the future. Her melodies are often stronger and more playful than before, particularly on the joyous opener "Little Deer." "Emperor with an Egg" contains some of her strangest, most outlandish lyrics as well as one of her most exquisite arrangements. As escapist as her songs can be, they're also highly introspective and even vulnerable -- she states "I want to live alone inside my fantasies" during "Always," and she asks to be saved as she's floating in space during the grand "The Future." The stunning centerpiece "Boys at School" is the album's most ambitious song as well as its most soul-baring, containing the refrain "I hate the boys at school/They never play the rules" as well as the drawn-out admission "I'm meaner than you think, and I'm not afraid of how lonely it's going to be." "Queen of Wands" and "Magic Act" both recall the woozy, spooky synth pop of
Mazy Fly, but taken in different directions; the former opens with an almost Baroque-sounding string section, and the latter has a slow-burning lead guitar solo. As with Cabral's previous album,
The Turning Wheel has several standouts along with a handful of other tracks that don't leave as much of an impression. However, this is undeniably her best-produced work yet, and clearly demonstrates her impressive growth as an artist. ~ Paul Simpson