It's like the spirit of Carl's pet cuckoo (8)

I believe the answer is:

spectral

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'it's like the spirit' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'carl's pet cuckoo' is the wordplay.
'cuckoo' indicates an anagram.
'carls'+'pet'='carlspet'
'carlspet' with letters rearranged gives 'SPECTRAL'.

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for spectral that I've seen before include "covering a range of colours" , "Rap Celts for being ghostly" , "Ghostly; of bands of colour" , "Like a colourful band" , "Ghastly" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times and the Irish Times (Crosaire).

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