A modern take on the “greatest hits” album: SPELLLING & the Mystery School.
SPELLLING out your “greatest hits” takes time, effort, and an entirely new sonic palette. Chrystia Cabral is up for the challenge.
artwork by Asher Stone.
When it comes to discovering iconic supergiants of the rock world for the first time, jumping straight into a “greatest hits” album seems to be the most logical approach for listeners. Streaming platforms like Spotify and websites like YouTube similarly push “greatest hits” and anthological albums in their algorithms to entice new listeners with a digestible, accessible format.
These forms of album listening are a little ironic to jump headfirst into if one is just discovering a musical artist, though. Why? They’re wholly retrospective. At the time of their release, they are put out under messages like “come relisten to all of my greatest hits!” with the added enticement of possible remastering or rerecording.
There is an objective difference in the album listening experience of finding a popular song you love in the context of the original album, give or take a few years since its original release, compared to hearing the track on a completely different tracklist, sandwiched between an artist's trendiest hit records. Both are their own unique discoveries, and I’m not arguing that one is any more “authentic” than another. But, there’s something fascinating about experiencing an artist’s re-recorded songs for the first time again, a kind of excitement not exclusive to Swifties. It’s something all musicians should do at one point or another, and I can think of no better example than SPELLLING’s The Mystery School.
Chrystia Cabral, known by her stage name SPELLLING, is an American musician and songwriter. Born in 1989, SPELLLING is recognized for her unique blend of experimental pop, electronic, and R&B influences. Her music often incorporates dreamy atmospheres, ethereal vocals, and a rich sonic palette. Following the release of Cabral’s The Turning Wheel, an immediate fan favorite among online communities, SPELLLING released an anthology of re-recorded tracks from all her LPs and EPs: SPELLING & The Mystery School.
Emphatic and personal as standalone bodies of work, the real treat comes from seeing how far Cabral can push the selected tracks forward. Her sophomore album The Turning Wheel (2021) was theatrical, with songs that could soundtrack Disney’s Enchanted or be heard on Broadway, while its reimagined tracks on The Mystery School sound more spacious and haunting. On tracks like “Hard to Please” and “Sweet Talk,” listeners reap the rewards of the similar spooky reverbs and synths from the original recordings along with the extra touch of personability, and you can practically hear the smile on Cabral’s face as she sings. It almost sounds like you’re sitting in at a personal concert, but instead of listening in at NPR’s Tiny Desk set, you’re in a concert hall. In short, a lot of the enticement about The Mystery School comes from the fact that every single song is reinterpreted with professional design, showcasing Cabral’s best vocal techniques fans have seen so far.
Outside of the production technicalities to appreciate, Cabral’s lyricism takes on a different, serenade-esque sound. “Always” was the soundtrack to my senior year of high school, but now it’s a bit jarring to listen to the original track. It’s much faster and upbeat compared to the slow, sensual tone on The Mystery School. First time listeners should visit the original recordings before trying out these new ones. Truly, the songs are only a handful of seconds longer now, but the pace Cabral sets with her voice make it noticeably slower. One user on Album of The Year reported that the song felt like it dragged on forever, claiming they expected some sort of climax that never came. Others who know and love the original track can’t comprehend that interpretation. Alas, that commenter should’ve listened to The Turning Wheel first. With lyrics like “How can I ever know what love can truly be? / I want to live alone inside my fantasies,” this re-recorded take on “Always” quite literally feels like we are living in Cabral’s fantasies, experiencing all the yearning and longing that she sings about. For a re-recorded track to have that special effect on the listener, they must first understand all previous versions of it. These are not individual bodies of work, but one creative expression. They cannot exist without each other.
I like to compare the experience of hearing new recordings of tracks to that of live music. There’s a reason why fans of any artist love concerts so much: they get to re-experience a favorite song with different inflections, pauses, beat drops, and added instrumentals thrumming through their chests. Re-recorded tracks, no matter how much or how little they differ from their originals, offer the same experience in recorded-studio format.
“Boys at School” on The Mystery School is a great example. The all-too-relatable lyrics “I hate the boys at school / They never play the rules,” aren’t the only reasons why this song is a favorite among SPELLLING fans. The first few seconds of the track begin with piano notes followed by a cutting violin that demands your attention. Cabral’s singing has an added melancholy on “Boys at School,” as violins weep throughout. My immediate first impression upon hearing this new version was how in-your-face it is compared to the original track. Detailed production aside, the new ambiance of the song is striking to anyone who’s heard it on The Turning Wheel. The clarity in sound and the ‘80s guitar solo towards the end elevate this track in a way you would only notice if you were familiar with its original. Additionally, SPELLLING’s use of backing vocals on this track would almost seem out of place on The Turning Wheel but make perfect sense on The Mystery School. In this way, “greatest hits'' albums are inherently appealing because your interpretation and love for a song can be rejuvenated.
There’s something to be said about modern artists like SPELLLING releasing an anthology album without having a giant fan base or decades of artistry under their belts. The last few years have been tumultuous, and popular culture is changing at a pace impossible to keep up with. During times where one year feels like five, Cabral releasing The Mystery School with tracks that are less than a decade old, some less than three years old, has a meaning different from the rock giants of the ‘80s releasing a “greatest hits” record that covers twenty years of their artistry.
With the growing popularity of re-records, listeners can re-experience periods of their life while finding new meanings and actively attaching new memories to unfamiliar versions of familiar songs. My life has changed in so many ways since I first heard The Turning Wheel in 2021. Despite only being two years in the past, I’m a vastly different person than I was then and that is something I’m sure many SPELLLING fans can relate to.
Cabral’s music encompasses what it means to come of age at a difficult time (we all “hate the boys at school” who “never play the rules”). Love, mysticism, sensuality, and identity all come together in an apex on The Mystery School. I, for one, think reimagining songs, no matter how recent, is one of the most captivating things an artist can do. After all, what’s greater than a “Greatest Hits”?
edited by Alondra Romero.
artwork by Asher Stone.