Cyrk (album)

Cyrk
Studio album by Cate Le Bon
Released	17 January 2012 (2012-01-17)
Genre	Art pop [ citation needed ] Neo-psychedelia [ citation needed ]
Length	35:09
Label	Amplify Music
Producer	Krissie Jenkins
Cate Le Bon chronology
Me Oh My (2009) Cyrk (2012) Mug Museum (2013)

Cyrk is the second studio album by Welsh singer and producer Cate Le Bon. It was released in 2012 by Amplify Music.

Background and recording

Le Bon found inspiration for her second album from the Isle of Eigg, located in the Inner Hebrides. In particular, Le Bon found inspiration in the sea, wildlife, and matters of the heart. Le Bon described the album as a "time travel travelogue", and as having lighter lyrics than her previous album, Me Oh My . ^[1]

Le Bon rehearsed the songs of Cyrk in the Welsh mountains with a tight-knit band. She noted that her approach to song-writing changed from that of Me Oh My, saying: "When I wrote the songs for CYRK, I had been touring Me Oh My with a live band for quite some time and started to change my approach to songwriting. I had mapped out the instrumentation before going into the studio and had quite a definite idea of how I wanted it to sound." ^[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
DIY
Paste	7.6/10

According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Cyrk received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 from 23 critic scores. ^[3]

In a four-star review for AllMusic, James Christopher Monger stated, "Le Bon somehow manages to make it all feel surprising natural, allowing the oddness of the songs, all of which are built upon the foundation of a simple, melodic hook, then allowed enough pasture to graze indefinitely." ^[4] The album received a 3.5-star rating from DIY, whose reviewer Heather Steele remarked, "For all its playful charm, Cyrk is deliciously dark: it revels in its ability to marry calmness with the uncomfortable." ^[5] Stephen M. Deusner of Paste assigned the release a 7.6 rating and commented, "As it progresses, Cyrk loses some of its musical and descriptive vitality, but Le Bon lingers over these physical depictions, lending her songs a beguiling tactility as well as a strong gravity." ^[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Cate Le Bon.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Falcon Eyed"	2:48
2.	"Puts Me to Work"	3:27
3.	"Cyrk"	3:05
4.	"Julia"	3:23
5.	"Greta"	3:36
6.	"Fold The Cloth"	5:39
7.	"The Man I Wanted"	3:08
8.	"Through The Mill"	3:07
9.	"Ploughing Out, Pt. 1"	3:52
10.	"Ploughing Out, Pt. 2"	2:59
Total length:		35m 9s

Personnel

• Cate Le Bon – vocals, song-writing
• H. Hawkline – album artwork, musician
• Andy Fung – musician
• Gwion Llewelyn – musician
• Meilyr Jones – musician
• Siôn Glyn – musician
• Stephen Black – musician
• Iwan Morgan – mixing, mastering^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. Keoghan, Jim. "Love & Language: An Interview With Cate Le Bon". The Quietus. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
2. Awbi, Anita. "The weird world of Cate le Bon". PRS for Music. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
3. "Cyrk by Cate Le Bon Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic . Retrieved 15 October 2025.
4. Monger, James. "Cyrk Review". AllMusic . Retrieved 16 October 2025.
5. Steele, Heather (29 April 2012). "Cate Le Bon – Cyrk". DIY . Retrieved 16 October 2025.
6. Deusner, Stephen (11 January 2012). "Cate Le Bon: Cyrk". Paste . Retrieved 16 October 2025.