Song Review: KiiiKiii – Dancing Alone

Starship Entertainment’s new girl group KiiiKiii debuted earlier this year, grabbing attention with a diverse set of promoted tracks. Their memey Debut Song didn’t work for me and I found follow-ups BTG and Groundwork a little too fitful to last on my playlist, but the generic pop of I Do Me enjoyed surprising longevity. Now, KiiiKiii are back in a pop realm with new single Dancing Alone, which takes its cues from the 80s.

“K-pop + The 80s” has a long history filled with bangers, including one of the industry’s best albums of all-time. At this point, the decade’s sounds have been mined so completely that there’s not really any new ground to cover. And true to form, Dancing Alone is the kind of straightforward synthpop we’ve heard countless times before. This sound will always engender a certain baseline of praise from me because I find it endlessly appealing, but to push past “good” and arrive at “fantastic,” the song needs to do something more.

Dancing Alone is simply “good,” the kind of track I’d gladly add to any playlist and one that I’ll probably return to quite often. Its melodies are solid, its synth-heavy instrumental shimmers with a consistent sheen and the girls sell the nostalgic sentiments at its core. However, there’s a workmanlike approach to Dancing Alone that somehow makes it less than the sum of its parts. The song feels like it could have been performed by just about anyone, lacking a unique perspective or take on the genre. In this way, it’s a worthy follow-up to I Do Me. Time will tell if it will stick around the charts for as long as that track.

Grade: B