Song Review:: ASC2NT: STILL : I- Still Rose

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  • Release date: 2026 February 26
  • Album tracklist: The Boy In The Mirror (feat. Yun Hyerin), Still Rose, Purple Rain, Full Moon, Replay
  • Album runtime: 15 minutes

 Their first mini album! Y'all,when I tell you that I love this group, I'm not kidding in the slightest. One of my favorite 2024 debuts, and I had quite a few that year that I kind of fell in love with. I'm actually tentatively excited to review this for you all. I haven't heard it yet, but I have more or less really liked what I've heard of them so far. Also, even to this day, every time I hear "Sweet Devil" I could swear they're saying "Sweet Denim", and it makes me giggle every single time. And I couldn't be happier about the fact that a) second gen idols are getting another chance and b) that the younger ones are still full-grown, in-their-twenties adults. It's like five stresses get lifted off my shoulders when groups debut as adults.

The song goes through like three different genres in the space of less than three minutes, and it's built with a very specific kind of frame narrative bookend which allows the song to flow uninterrupted and without disruption when on repeat. You get about a beat of silence before the beginning kicks in, and it's a blink-and-you-miss-it, but because it's not the only spot where the instrumental uses the rests, it's not very noticeable. The BPM gives the song a sense of desperation that I think is fascinating. 

If you come here looking for extensive or dominant rapping of any kind, you will be sorely disappointed. This is a vocals-first song. I'm not sure that there's any rapping in this one at all, though there is a spot where it might be melodic rapping instead of singing because it reminds me of what Felix from Stray Kids does sometimes when he's got a singing part rather than a full rapping part, but at the same time, it could also just be because the notes are low in the rapping range. Most of the song is actually fairly high, and you can hear that especially when the lower voices are singing up at the same pitch as the higher voices. The notes might be the same, but the tone is completely different. It's a very pretty song vocally. Very pretty.

The music video is more of a performance video, which is fine, but there were a couple of really interesting things I noticed. First, the location with the pool has a glass roof that reminds me of a greenhouse (which in a lot of colder climates is where one would grow hot climate roses). Second, in the underground garage, it was cold enough that you can see their breath occasionally, but the "glitch" that happens had me rewinding it to watch it again to verify what I was seeing. Instantly curious to see how that will work for a live performance. Third, they mimic the confetti explosion that you would get for performances, but they use red rose petals instead, which I thought was brilliant until I realized that they were using rose petals, at which point I decided it was both brilliant and thematic, which is even better.



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