Song Review:: Lee Jiham (A.C.E): Love before Me- Too late {Debut}

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  • Release date: 2026 February 12
  • Album tracklist: Forever Mine, Too late, Film, If you leave me, Still with you
  • Album runtime: 18 minutes

 Whoo! He debuted as a soloist! We get to hear this lovely voice out in the wild now! And the runtime almost makes me want to cry from joy. 

Okay, you know what? I'm down with this guitar. It's very calm and comforting. It takes a bit for the drums to properly join in although we get a small burst of them earlier. But the song gets so much time with just the guitar in the instrumental that I'm intrigued and pleased by this. The contrast of the verses and the chorus is delightful, full energy shift. 

He's wailing everyone. It's part of the ad-libs at the end, but it's incredible and I'm not just saying that because his vibrato gets fully unleashed in that little section. It's been such a long time since I've heard a proper wail like that in music. They've fallen out of style, which is fine because musical trends and genres come and go in popularity, but this is one of those things that is so perfectly suited to 3 am breakup songs or singing in the shower when you're in your feels songs. And then the brokenness at the very end, with everything muted? Masterpiece. Well-done. This song is perfect for his voice, and as a solo debut? Yes. A thousand times yes. 

Like his pre-debut track, the music video is very much in the style of a home video, and there's a very melancholy feel to it, heightened only by the loneliness at the very end. Between the long cut and the lack of movement, that ending is something. Very nice. Well done, director(s).

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