Chrystia Cabral is back with her Bay Area-based project SPELLLING. She announced her third album, The Turning Wheel, the follow-up to 2019’s Mazy Fly. The glittering, dramatic lead single “Little Deer” is out today. It’s heavily reminiscent of early 2000s pop, her vocals airy and seductive like Britney Spears or Vanessa Carlton, though it’s got somewhat of a jazz and R&B twist.

Cabral said of the song:

“Little Deer” is definitely a thesis track. I feel that way because it not only showcases the greatest range of instrumentation that is featured on the album, but also because it accomplishes this strong impression of theater that I was striving for with the album as a whole. I’m especially proud of the lyrics. The challenge with the lyric writing was being able to speak to really large concepts like karma, reincarnation and the cycle of life without making the song sound burdened. I wanted the lyrics to match the grandeur of the instrumentation but still be easy to sing along to. I figured out a way to build the lyrics using a lot of abstract language that is still singable but odd in a way that 1 hope makes it memorable.

She considers the record to be split up — the first half is “Above,” while the second is “Below.” It starts with exuberant songs, but it gets darker as it goes on (she is on Sacred Bones Records, after all, which is known for more, uh, enigmatic stuff). The album also plays with a myriad of instruments, from piano and synthesizer to banjo and bassoon.

Listen to “Little Deer” and check out the tracklist for The Turning Wheel below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Little Deer”
02 “Always”
03 “Turning Wheel”
04 “The Future”
05 “Awaken”
06 “Emperor With An Egg”
07 “Boys At School”
08 “Legacy”
09 “Queen Of Wands”
10 “Magic Act”
11 “Revolution”
12 “Sweet Talk”

The Turning Wheel is out 6/25 on Sacred Bones Records.