Still Ruins make the kind of music that feels like déjà vu for a future you never lived. Since forming in Oakland in 2018, the trio of Frankie Soto, Jose Medina, and Cyrus VandenBerghe have carved out a space where dreamwave, new wave, and post-punk converge into something both lush and immediate. Their self-titled debut EP introduced the band’s sensibility: a blend of widescreen romanticism and shadowy introspection that recalls The Chameleons or early Tears for Fears while sounding entirely their own.

What makes Still Ruins stand apart isn’t just their reference points but the way they transform them into something tactile and enduring. Songs like “Perfect Blue” and “Of Devotion” shimmer with layered atmospherics, balancing grandeur and intimacy, while closer “Left Against” distills their ethos into an anthem that is heartfelt without tipping into sentimentality. Their music doesn’t chase nostalgia—it reanimates the emotional core of an era when pop could be moody, elegant, and deeply human all at once.

If their first release proved anything, it’s that Still Ruins aren’t content with simply echoing the past. They inhabit the liminal space where longing meets catharsis, where melancholy can feel like a form of liberation. It’s this quality—the ability to sound familiar and strange at once—that makes their work linger long after the last note fades, pulling listeners back before they even realize they’ve pressed play again.