Off their new album Highlight, Beast is back in top form with their lead single Ribbon. Despite losing Hyunseong in April, Beast sounds tighter since the ex-member’s departure, and many fans will be happy to have a band that is fully committed to the power of Beast’s music. A Ribbon to tie everything together, to keep a relationship from coming undone is the central meaning to the song.

The music video takes it a step further by surrounding the band with clocks, a constant reminder of time- future, present and past. The band mainly dances in an abandoned subway station, where all that remains are five clocks.

In one scene, Junhyung furiously smashes an old clock in a vain effort to stop time, as most people wish they could after a breakup. Gikwang opens the lockers to find relics of a past relationship: teddy bears, carousels, a woman’s gentle hands, and a black rose, signaling the end of it all. The band finds themselves having to encounter memories of the past; Dongwoon writing messages on an old car, Yoseob is alone at a carousel where he sees a beautiful dress without a body to fill it, and Doojoon is alone on a rooftop, taking photos in a photo booth all alone. By the end of it, they destroy any reminiscent of a past life. Dongwoon burns the car and his past with it, Yoseob fades away, and Doojoon jumps off the roof, leaving the past behind.

All in all Ribbon is a powerful video from the now 5-piece super group.