Chris Garneau scrapped an entire body of work before finding the triumph of ‘In Reverse,’ his sixth studio album out today via The Orchard.

It is a striking pivot away from constant chaos around us. Ditching survival mode for actual rest, the NYC artist wades deep into gothic shoegaze and dark dream pop. The title track alone feels like a phantom limb remembering what healthy love is supposed to feel like, abandoning the exhausting theater of trying to fix broken things.

Producers Dan Marcellus, Patrick Higgins, and Mike McGuire wrap Garneau’s rich piano and synth layers in an eerie cinematic fog. Thanks to Ruairi O’Flaherty’s mastering, the massive arrangements remain raw and intimate rather than swallowed by their own reverb. Written over a single turbulent year, these eight tracks map the messy death of one relationship and the jarring clarity of new desire. Garneau stops forcing the plot here. He lets the heavy atmospheres breathe, capturing the exact moment when brutal survival tactics give way to a gentle, visceral relief. The result is a gorgeous, unbothered exhale.