KiiiKiii blew up massive time this January with their hit 404 (New Period), rapidly establishing their place on the forefront of this technology’s lady teams. They’ve additionally develop into one of many architypes of Ok-pop’s present dance pattern, mixing hyperpop with early-2010s EDM. Personally, the primary phrase that involves thoughts once I consider them is “aesthetic.” Their inventive staff has the visible and conceptual facet down. I’m ready for the songs themselves to flesh out in the identical approach.

It’s onerous to not hear the affect of Charli XCX in new single Pop Off Pop Off. The tune performs virtually as a spotlight reel of her numerous sounds and textures, extending 2024’s “Brat summer season” to 2026. Whereas the power is admirable, I discover it tough to attach with this total fashion. All of it feels so fleeting and synthetic, all the way down to the incessant vocal results. Although I wasn’t the most important fan of Brat, that album’s brilliance was its willingness to let humanity poke by means of the equipment. Lyrically, that vulnerability is of no curiosity to Pop Off Pop Off, which implies the tune should join another way.

Again within the early 2010s, that connection got here by means of idiosyncratic vocal performances and strong melodies. These components are stripped away right here as nicely, changed with a thumping (however disinterested) membership beat and chirpy sing-talk hooks that develop into so nameless they may as nicely simply be one other loop within the combine. 404 (New Period) additionally went heavy on the sing-talk, however you had been in a position to hear KiiiKiii’s vocal tone and character entrance and heart. Right here, they may as nicely get replaced by AI. It’s like listening to an outdated Katy Perry or Ke$ha tune squeezed till all now we have left is the focus. This is perhaps cool and classy, but it surely neglects the options that make nice pop music so endearing and timeless.

Grade: C