The Turning Wheel (album)

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.^[5] For instance, album opener "Little Deer" pulls from jazz pop and "plush" 1960s lounge pop,^[2] while "Emperor with an Egg" takes on chamber pop.^[2]

The album itself is divided into two parts, subtitled Above and Below.^[6] Above, beginning with "Little Deer" and ending with "Emperor with an Egg",^[7] has an overall brighter sound^[8] while Below, beginning with "Boys at School", has a darker tone.^[9][6][8]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.5/10[1]
Metacritic	79/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Beats Per Minute	76%[8]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[10]
Loud and Quiet	6/10[11]
Louder Than War	[6]
musicOMH	[12]
NME	[2]
Pitchfork	7.5/10[3]
Uncut	7/10[9]
Under the Radar	[13]

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".^[4] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 7.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. ^[1] 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.

Above

1. "Little Deer" – 5:39
2. "Always" – 5:14
3. "Turning Wheel" – 3:33
4. "The Future" – 3:27
5. "Awaken" – 4:31
6. "Emperor with an Egg" – 3:09

Below

7. "Boys at School" – 7:28
8. "Legacy" – 3:51
9. "Queen of Wands" – 5:21
10. "Magic Act" – 5:40
11. "Revolution" – 5:59
12. "Sweet Talk" – 3:33