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.
| Hooks | 8 |
| Production | 8 |
| Longevity | 8 |
| Bias | 9 |
| RATING | 8.25 |
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
arguably one of the best songs I have heard this year tbh. Like i was gagged this is so cute and fun and the mv is stunning 😍
9.25/10🍧🏝️
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One of the things you do so well on this blog is reference other related songs/content. What a perfect introduction or reminder to The Wonder Girls – Reboot for everyone reading. That’s part of why I never skip a post, even if the song being covered isn’t interesting. So thank you for that!
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You’re welcome! I love legacy in pop music and figuring out where certain songs situate in that vast tapestry.
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they’re moving in the right direction, I hope they don’t go back to whatever they had going on in their debut EP
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Their debut EP had literal hits. Why shouldn’t they go back to those vibes if they want to?
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fr! i saw kiiikiii’s debut as one of the most unique projects of 2025, sonically! if they had refined that sound, they could have been amazing
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I kind of hope they steal the summer with this 🙂 I weirdly liked Groundwork…
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Spamming the comment section, but the MV made me feel like I was watching a crossover between the 2000s Japanese movie Linda Linda and April’s “Oh my mistake” MV and both these are good watches 🙂
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Didn’t liked anything they released so far but this one… This is it!
Catchy song, great instrumental, beautiful MV and for what they show of the choreo it looks pretty good too
And I’ll always celebrate when a kpop song have 3+ minutes. Yay!
Hope they keep going in this direction from now on
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It’s fine, if generic. It sounds like an 80’s beat like “Maniac” from Flashdance and water it down so that there are no sharp edges, or edges at all. All just smooth inoffensiveness. Vanilla ice cream. The title harkens back to a much edgier 80’s song “Dancing with myself” which definitely had a point of view with some danger to it.
Me, here, I just scroll on by.
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I found myself so depressed hearing this song. it’s not offensive, but exactly in that inoffensiveness, it makes me feel nothing. I am one of those who actually enjoyed most of kiiikiii’s first album, i really liked btg and groundwork, i enjoyed i do me, i even have to give credit to debut song as hard to listen to as it was, it felt like a good start to an interesting soundscape. Here I just feel nothing. This is the same synthpop that i’ve heard a billion times from a billion groups at this point. The least it could’ve done is sound more like i do me if it was going to be less experimental. I was really looking forward to kiiikiii’s output because I do think 5th gen so far has had more interesting soundscapes, and ones that groups have more or less strictly stuck to like illit. My least favorite thing about kpop over the last year has just been unoriginality, and I could never truly like this song because its unoriginal, and dashes the hope i had not 4 months ago.
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I Do Me has grown on me a lot, and I have a feeling this song will do the same.
However, I’m more excited for IVE’s comeback later this month.
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it’s more solid album track than title track and the MV does a lot of heavy liftings. You really nailed the problem though, any band could release this song. Lucky they are so charming
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Sounds like it could be a fromis_9 or GWSN b-side, but in their most generic iteration. Like, it has no bite.
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Mmhhh first listen I find it very western and very underwhelming. It flows, it’s well packaged, but I wouldn’t play it back, the chorus is just “non offensive” to me. I feel to crack this 80s vibe they need a gigantic song after it’s been done and redone so much these last years. There seems to be a strong decline for the newest rookie groups song quality or am I hallucinating?
It feels like in this process of westernising their songs they won’t have enough appeal to chart in the US (beyond number 70) and they won’t appeal to the Korean public either. Everything is middle of the road reheated stuff to me. I kind of miss 3rd and 4th generation k-pop 😦
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