I See Stars – carry on for you

After releasing their fifth studio album, Tree House, in 2016, the electroniccore pioneers began working on material for their next album. However, when the global Covid-19 pandemic hit, I See Stars decided to narrow their focus, scrapping the majority of what they had already created.

The new start and hard work resulted in The Wheel, released on September 12, 2025, after years of fan anticipation from single releases, such as “Anomaly” in 2023.

The album’s title and imagery derive from an online spinning wheel. Every day, they would put all of their songs into the wheel, alongside silly tasks, and allow it to dictate what they would work on. While the spinning wheel began as a joke, the concept of leaving choices up to fate and letting the universe decide became very important to the group. The album's opening track, “Spin It,” is simply just a wheel-spinning sound effect for this exact reason.

I See Stars revealed, “The last time we spent this much time on a record was our debut album, ‘3D’. ‘The Wheel’ is a time capsule capturing the past seven years of our lives. It’s a culmination of everything we’ve experienced individually, together, and as human beings navigating the chaos of the world. We truly poured everything into it & we are so excited to finally share it with our fans.”

The album was released alongside the single “carry on for you.” It is one of the saddest, yet most beautiful tracks on the record, with lyrics such as, “Dreams / Dreams of your face / Slowly erase / Breaks my heart to let you go / Caged heart in half / Paragraphs of questions that I’ll never know.” It was written following vocalist Devin Oliver and Andrew Oliver losing their uncle to pancreatic cancer. The longing and reflective track includes modern production, a catchy chorus, and an emotional and explosive bridge and outro, where the full band joins, as well as a floating synthesizer.

Directed by Devin himself, the cinematic music video is an artistic representation of the pain that follows grief. Devin is depicted running through the rain, playing a piano in a dark room surrounded by dancers, dressed completely in black, and then in an empty room where the walls are smothered in photographs. The powerful visual is a heartbreaking tribute to the heartbreak that comes with the loss of someone close.