Oakland new-sophistipop icons Still Ruins reminding us that *it can’t rain all the time*; photographed by James Grossi.

Forgiveness is a process. There is the prescribed methodologies by religious figures in high holy places, and then there is the rectification that occurs between two parties, or the individual and themselves. The things that get lost in the pain is losing sight on what’s on the other side. A restoration of joy. A resurgence of appreciation. A return to a love that benefits everyone involved. A shift in one's consciousness toward a peace so bright it cannot be contained. The greatest forms of healing transform traumas into entities of light that can only be fully expressed in the multidisciplinary emanations of today’s most inspired luminaries.

Presenting the prismatic luster of Still Ruins’ new single “Our Penance”, out now via à La Carte Records. The successor to their self-titled album, the valiant trio of Frankie Soto, Jose Medina and Cyrus VandenBerghe continue to combine the sum of their talents, bands, projects, and creative visions into a new venerable vanguard of lush pop nobles. From Frankie and Jose's Balearic dream designs in Surf Club, to the weaving of textural tomorrows found in Cyrus' Welcome Strawberry: together they fuse sophistipop fantasias that can be felt like synthesizer phantasmagorias of the sentimental and sublime.

“Our Penance” takes you on a trip to an alternate 80s era where the new wave carries you to new shores of realization and centering of the self. Like a prayer to the universe for a deeper and more dear understanding of the world and its workings, “Penance” elevates atonement to places that illuminate the ancients and all the ethereal planes that push past the bounds of human comprehension. The Normal Bias remix of the track goes for the EDM jugular, embodying the visceral and vicious aesthetics of an exclusive dance event with aggressively punctuated percussion programming.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water offers a left field take on track that blends hi and lo fi mixing considerations, entertaining the more abstract components of the track that seeks to find the clandestine places where the angels and other such celestial entities congregate. Blood Rave's remix brings out the goth elements of the track, with rhythms that bop full of EBM bravado like the Italo disco track that the DJ saves for the after midnight crowd that remains steadfast in the church of four on the floor. Completing the remix circle is the Foliage treatment of "Penance" that rebuilds the track off a d & b axis that fires its keyboard canons into the stratosphere. Manuel Joseph Walker experiments with the alchemistic elements of synths that scan the galaxies above us, and all around us that highlights the universal aspects of the original that ride up to the edges of other potential universes.

The visuals filmed by mulit-hyphenate Eli Wengrin give you the classic MTV experience you thrill for. Matching the Still Ruins orchestration of recalibrated alternate movements within movements of influential import, "Our Penance" is depicted as an event worthy of fine tuning your coaxial cable box scrambler. The emerald spit-shined elegance of "Our Penance" lends its presence and open heartedness with the made for subscription television S tier that transformed the performance art platform into a multimedia expo that can be beamed into the homes of millions. Returning to the commercial dawning of the music video nascent ascent as an essential marketing arm of the creative work: Still Ruins' well studied infinite cadre of inspirational artists and canonical movements expand the scope from the anachronistic and into super pop structures that grasp toward passions that hang on the concepts of the endless and infinite. As the group expresses unabashed affinities for the historical forbears from different places and points in time: Still Ruins manages to collapse the conventions of time and the compass dial for existences and endearing communities that feel warmly familiar and always new.

In reflections and reminiscences over sophistipop loves, Prefab Sprout, Tears for Fears, and more:

With lush guitars, aching vocals, and cinematic atmosphere, [”Our Penance”] captures longing and elegance in equal measure—like a lost ‘80s classic reimagined for today.

Still Ruins’ new single “Our Penance” is available now via à La Carte Records.

Catch Still Ruins' last gig of 2025 December 3 at DNA Lounge in San Francisco.

PREMIERE Still Ruins, "Our Penance"