REVIEW

The eighth album from Chicago-based singer-songwriter Circuit des Yeux.

Released via Matador Records—home to artists such as Interpol and Snail Mail—Circuit des Yeux, the project of Haley Fohr, continues to defy easy categorization. Known for commanding a four-octave vocal range, Fohr moves fluidly across gothic, post-punk, neoclassical, darkwave, industrial, and folk, constructing a sound that feels deliberately borderless. On this album, the industrial dimension is brought further to the foreground, resulting in a darker and more imposing evolution of her work.

Throughout the record, Fohr navigates between resonant low registers and piercing falsetto with remarkable control. The effect suggests a cinematic form of dark ritual—one that might be imagined as Chelsea Wolfe, Dead Can Dance, and Depeche Mode converging within a dystopian, digital landscape.

For listeners with an affinity for shoegaze-adjacent textures, #4 “Anthem of Me” stands out as a clear highlight. Majestic neoclassical elements merge seamlessly with drone-like distorted guitars and a monumental, slow-moving beat that evokes the sound of colossal footsteps. Its sense of scale and suspended intensity may resonate strongly with fans of spectral drone and doomgaze acts such as ISON or Lovesliescrushing.

More broadly, the album aligns with a growing tendency to fuse drone-oriented sound design with folk, neoclassical, and darkwave frameworks—a direction also evident in recent works by artists like Ethel Cain and Penelope Trappes. Within this context, Circuit des Yeux positions herself not only as a participant in this emerging aesthetic, but as one of its most distinctive and commanding voices.