The Turning Wheel is the third studio album by American experimental pop artist Spellling, released on June 25, 2021, by Sacred Bones Records. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics.
The Turning Wheel has been noted for fewer elements of dark wave and gothic and more of progressive pop compared to Mazy Fly, Spelling's previous release. For instance, album opener "Little Deer" pulls from jazz pop and "plush" 1960s lounge pop, while "Emperor with an Egg" takes on chamber pop.
The album itself is divided into two parts, subtitled Above and Below. Above, beginning with "Little Deer" and ending with "Emperor with an Egg", has an overall brighter sound while Below, beginning with "Boys at School", has a darker tone.
The Turning Wheel was met with positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the release received an average score of 79, based on nine reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 7.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Anthony Fantano, known as "The Needle Drop" on YouTube, who is widely recognized as the internet's busiest music nerd and premier online music critic gave the album a 10/10.
All songs written by Spellling.
Credits adapted from Tidal.
Musicians
Technical