Photo by Sarah Eiseman

An outside perspective is sometimes all you need to look at something in a different light. Turning toward rock with her forthcoming fourth full-length effort, Portrait of My Heart, the album’s latest preview “Alibi” is more than just the otherworldly avant-pop of SPELLING throwing heavier riffs and banging drums into her creative process while doing her best ’90s alternative cosplay. Yes, the Liz Phair influence of its acid tongue lyrics show that Chrystia Cabral has done her fair share of homework on the best of them, and Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory is right there to help her rip through the post-breakup drama. “You’re a psychopath / And I loved you for that / But I won’t take you back this time / And I don’t take it back,” she sings over an electric theater sparked by an angst impassioned by the energy behind it. But nothing about her vision takes the backseat to fashion, however. If anything, she’s reinvented the alternative rock wheel with her own clear view.

SPELLLING’s Portrait of My Heart will be released March 28th on Sacred Bones Records.