| The Turning Wheel | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 25, 2021 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 57:32 | |||
| Label | Sacred Bones | |||
| Producer | Spellling | |||
| Spellling chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Turning Wheel | ||||
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The Turning Wheel is the third studio album by American experimental pop artist Spellling, released on June 25, 2021, by Sacred Bones Records. [1] The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. [2]
The Turning Wheel has been noted for Spellling's dropping her earlier dark wave and gothic sounds and expanding her progressive pop terrain. [3]
For instance, album opener "Little Deer" pulls from jazz pop and "plush" 1960s lounge pop, [4] while "Emperor with an Egg" takes on chamber pop. [4]
The album itself is divided into two parts, subtitled Above and Below respectively. Above begins with "Little Deer" and ends with "Emperor with an Egg", while Below begins with "Boys at School" and ends with "Sweet Talk", as they are separated in the album's liner notes. [5]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.5/10 [6] |
| Metacritic | 79/100 [2] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [3] |
| Beats Per Minute | 76% [7] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 9/10 [8] |
| Loud and Quiet | 6/10 [9] |
| Louder Than War | [10] |
| musicOMH | [11] |
| NME | [4] |
| Pitchfork | 7.5/10 [12] |
| Uncut | 7/10 [13] |
| Under the Radar |    [14] |
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". [2] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 7.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. [6]
All songs written by Spellling.
Credits adapted from Tidal. [15]
Musicians
Technical
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