When I was a wee little sprite, I used to look forward to getting sick. Being sick meant I would stay home from school in my bed and I would watch daytime TV while my Mom comforted me with warm or cool towels on my forehead, pounds of Vicks vapor rub which she just called “Mentol” (menthol) and of course sopa de gallina con fideo (hen soup with noodles). For most of my life my mother left for work an hour after I got home from school, so I relished any daytime opportunity I could get with my mom, without a step father. When I was sick, It was just us and she would call me her baby again. Her attention was all mine. As a kid who went from being a younger sibling to becoming an only child, I always wished for more time with my parents, but life is what it is and you gotta make the best with what you have… right? In my young mind I wanted every sick day to be like that time Columbo told Kevin Arnold that story about the Princess and the Pirate which is to say Peter Falk reading the Princess Bride to a young Fred Savage.
I didn’t get many stories read to me as a child. Instead my parents got me the books on tapes of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania’s (Jehovah Witnesses) My Book of Bible Stories. Those stories gave me vivid nightmares I still remember to this day. One time after my brother passed away, my parents gifted me a Teddy Ruxpin which only came with one tape. When I was done with that tape and asked for another one, they told me to just listen to the bible stories tapes, which made Teddy Ruxpin a part of my nightmares too. My imagination was being molded by American television and it’s modern myths, so I very much wanted a Peter Falk type of Grandfather who would read me stories when I was sick. I wanted to be “your best American girl”. I was told it was all lies, but I still wished upon stars and hoped for Santa to be real. I often prayed to the wrong god. for magic and fantasy to be real. Thank the sweet lord Hollywood just kept pumping out stories for me to devour, as well as PBS with Levar Burton, and Jim Henson’s infinite imagination. I recently watched the new Jim Henson documentary, directed by Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard), and it got my brain cycling through all of my favorite childhood stories. I don’t know what I would’ve done without the Muppet Babies teaching me that my imagination could transport me anywhere, or without Fred Rogers’ Land of Make Believe.
While at Kingdom Hall I was taught that the only stories worth exploring were biblical, and worldly stories mostly had evil or satanic messaging. The television which JW’s called Satan’s Eye, told me that stories were a marvelous escape from everyday life and the Princess Bride was a story about a kid being read a story. I wanted to be Bastian, who was having a hard go at life, and sought refuge in the Neverending Story. I wanted to be a Disney princess and find out that after years of hardship there was a happy ending waiting for me on the other side.
I began writing this before my recent Covid weekend, and being sick on a couch led me to watch The Dark Crystal, and Princess Bride again. I also watched some animated movies like Suzume and other fantastical anime films. Anime has become one of the new houses of fantasy. Studio Ghibli alone are titans of fantasy. They create and open the most elaborate worlds of wonder. Im happy I had time to explore these themes while I recovered.
All these movies create worlds with music, and growing up with these films I began to associate specific sounds with the themes of fairytale. It’s not one genre, it’s an entire vibe that can be triggered through sonic narratives. Some combination of any type of global folk music and synths. Limahl’s Neverending Story from the film is a perfect example of the pop synth style, while we get a story telling folk feel from Of Monsters and Men’s Dirty Paws. Fairytale songs make me feel transported and whisked away. Some of my favs are Bowie, Kate Bush, Bjørk, Toto, Bon Iver, and Joanna Newsome to name a few. Some specific songs from artists who aren’t always on the fairytale vibe but definitely dabble are Brittany Howard’s Run To Me, Japanese Breakfast’s Paprika, Michael Kiwanuka’s Cold Little Heart, The Raconteurs’ The Switch and the Spur, Earth Wind & Fire’s Fantasy, Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi’s Rome, and even Tenacious D’s Wonderboy to name another few.
This week the Sunday Morning Record is The Turning Wheel by SPELLLING. This is 100% pure Fairytale Core. SPELLLING sounds and feels like a mythical being of legends forgotten. I’d never heard of SPELLLING, before getting a promo flexi disc of Little Deer while checking out at Rough Trade Records. I love promo songs but I honestly don’t check them out right away. It might’ve been weeks or months before I played it one day while picking out music for my wedding. I was captivated by this song from an artist I’d never heard of. These moments are rare and exciting. I looked up the Album and purchased it right away. By now I hope my impulsive record shopping is well known. When the album finally arrived I had such a great time playing it a few times one lucky Sunday Morning, or an equivalent morning, because I know I was working Sundays back then. But Sunday Morning Records don’t have to be so literal. SPELLLING aka Chrystia "Tia" Cabral is an amazing musician and poet, so this will be lyric heavy, but if you don’t pay attention to every word, the voice and melodies will fly you away from here. l’m so excited to go through this album today so let’s jump right in!
Above
Side A
Little Deer
This song sweeps you right into a brand new world. A forest full of fairy light and dancing. The vocals and beat don’t drop until !:26 into the song. Before that you’re getting transported. Leave all your cares behind and walk into this magical realm SPELLLING dreamt up. The chorus enchants us into a woodland world full of wonder, love and danger:
“Dead of winter, dead of eve
Little deer will me marry me
Tender lovers of the York
Turn us back into the dark”
This charming song played at my wedding a couple of times due to a playlist mixup. One time we pretended Casey, my spouse, was a little deer hit by an arrow and I got it all on my phone. Casey is my little deer and I’m hers; SPELLLING with this song made me feel we were fulfilling some fable quest with our union. It will always take me back to the wedding, to our union, to the time she pretended she was a deer shot by an arrow on 7th avenue in Park Slope Brooklyn.
Always
This song begins with great fantasy vocals that lead into a beat that almost comes in hard but eases back in a tease. The song is a cautious plea for someone not to steal a heart in a swell of falling in love. At this point it’s too late. When you’re trying to negotiate with the keeper of your heart, you’ve already given full access to each ventricle and the blooding pumping within it’s walls. The song rewards patience with some horns as a subtle accent to the song. It’s steady but soft build sits in the base of my shimmy waiting to break out.
Turning Wheel
The titular song of the album combines more amazing vocals in a chorus of classical proportions. It speaks of forgoing the cities Turning Wheel for life on the Hill. It feels quaint and grand. Earthly and otherworldly. It contains so many realities, and I don’t know which one to inhabit. It leaves me lost and grateful.
SIde B
The Future
Singing of living in the Future juxtaposed in melodies that beckon a long long time ago. This is no contradiction. The mixture of classic instruments and synths are the future I wish to visit. Living in the future is living every day in the world you wish to create. But the future can be scary as well.
“All I can do is wait for my ideals to take
I feel so out of place, searching for the answers
Out here in the future”
Awaken
Awaken is a space age spell. An incantation to the planets in our solar system. This song is a cinematic glory with a pre-chorus and a chorus that set up the spell and execute.
Emperor with an Egg
A tale of a penguin and its egg. “He's a bird, he's a king
He can swim with his wings like an arrow” The majestic natural world with all its beauties and perils lurking right behind.
Below
Side A
Boys at School
This should be on Stranger Things. The cruelty of school with guitar riffs that feel right out of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This song contains so much sorrow and angst. But these feelings are supplanted by a hopeful cascading orchestral build and deliver.
Legacy
This feels like a song of someone making the dreadful plunge into themselves. To battle demons and emerge victorious into the daylight. There aren’t many lyrics to this one, instead phrases are repeated until they are believed by both the singer and the listener.
Queen of Wands
Straight up magic I tell you.This begins in what could be confused for a centuries old composition, and breaks into heavy synth and a deep voice that is casting all types of sorcery.
“Are you afraid, Of the power?”
Side B
Magic Act
This begins slightly whimsical and goes from there to straight up haunting. The repetition of “Take my body (take my body), Make my brain a garden” hits differently every time and permeates into my goosebumps. Can you feel it?
Revolution
“I think I found my way around this mortal coil”. There are moments when I believe this about myself. Revolution affirms this belief. The vocals are slight and powerful. The power is in the music and lyrics in equal measure. The voice seduces you in and the music plays you out in a daze.
“What I want is a fire that never goes out
I've got all this desire in a world of doubt
I'm in a permanent revolution
I'm in a permanent revolution”
Sweet Talk
This is a flex of an ending. The voice bends in so many directions here. Strong and confident and so so sweet. Left me with a feeling of complete longing.
I hope this album transported you into your own fairy land far far away, long enough to ease your tender soul. Thank you for joining me on this surreal reverie. I’ll be back next week with more Sunday Morning Records. Please enjoy your week and holiday.