KIMIKO - Modern Dance EP
- Samuel Stevens
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
For KIMIKO, heartbreak apparently comes with a sense of humour, a camera, and enough pop hooks to turn an emotional crisis into a dance party. On her debut EP Modern Dance, set for release on August 14, 2026, the actress, director, and singer-songwriter transforms the absurdities of contemporary romance into a five-song snapshot of bad dates, mixed signals, obsessive yearning, and, naturally, plenty of “ick.” It is short, sharp, and deliberately unserious in all the best ways possible.
“The EP was born out of frustration, like a lot of my songs are,” KIMIKO explains, and that frustration is the connective tissue running through the entirety of Modern Dance. Rather than wallow in romantic disappointment, she pokes holes in it. These five songs understand that sometimes the only way to survive a disastrous situationship is to laugh at just how ridiculous it all is.
The EP opens with the track “Hang Out Forever?”, the cheeky number that first introduced KIMIKO's musical persona to the world in October 2025. Built around the premise of a seemingly promising date that takes a sinister turn, it immediately establishes her knack for finding comedy in discomfort. There is a theatrical quality to the song, with KIMIKO turning the conventions of modern dating into something approaching a miniature pop-horror story. It is playful, but there is an unmistakable edge underneath the bubbly production.
If “Hang Out Forever?” is the manicured first date, “Emotional Whiplash” is what happens when the fantasy collapses. The EP's most contemplative moment, the song gradually builds around KIMIKO's dreamy vocals as she processes the uniquely confusing experience of being love-bombed one minute and abandoned the next. Her anecdote behind the song—a man declaring that he had deleted all the dating apps and told his parents about her, only to accuse her of moving too quickly when she asked about another date—is almost too absurd to be fictional.
That contradiction becomes the song's strength. “Emotional Whiplash” isn't simply about getting hurt; it's about trying to understand the emotional gymnastics of modern romance. KIMIKO makes that confusion sound vulnerable without ever losing her sense of humour.
“Just Like That!” brings the energy back up. On paper, it is a laid-back pop song. Emotionally, however, it is anything but chill. KIMIKO captures the hilariously disproportionate agony of waiting for a text while attempting to convince yourself that you are far too busy and important to care. The song understands the particular humiliation of announcing to everyone that you're “fine” while simultaneously voice-noting every friend you have.
That tension between outward composure and internal chaos is central to KIMIKO's appeal. She doesn't present romantic frustration as some grand tragedy. Instead, she makes space for the irrationality of desire—the spiralling, the overthinking, the embarrassment, and the realization that you're behaving completely unlike the person you thought you were.
Following is the infectious track, “BIG ICK ENERGY.” Where the earlier songs examine individual romantic disasters, this particular track embraces the collective language of dating culture itself as a whole. It's the point where disappointment becomes liberation: if someone is giving you the ick, why not turn the entire experience into a song? Whereas the EP's closer, and namesake, “Modern Dance,” feels like the culmination of her entire philosophy towards modern dating.
Taken together, the songs on Modern Dance feel less like isolated singles and more like pages from the same messy diary. KIMIKO has found a musical identity rooted in the collision of vulnerability and comedy. Her influences are apparent in her appreciation for artists such as Lily Allen and Sabrina Carpenter, particularly their ability to turn gender politics, romantic frustrations, and personal embarrassments into infectious pop without sanding away the complicated emotions underneath.
That approach also makes Modern Dance feel like a natural extension of KIMIKO's career as a performer. She has spent years moving between television, film, Broadway, animation, and voice acting, but music gives her a different kind of authorship. Here, she isn't simply playing a character or interpreting someone else's material. She is turning her own experiences into the material.
That transition is particularly evident in the visual world surrounding the EP. KIMIKO's music videos aren't merely promotional accessories; they're extensions of the songs' personalities. Her video for “Emotional Whiplash,” her first directing effort, places her amid mannequins, a desert landscape, and a mechanical bull—visual representations of the extremes of an unstable relationship. Likewise, the TikTok-inspired world of “Just Like That!” turns the curated absurdity of contemporary online life into a backdrop for a very real emotional spiral.
It makes sense that someone with KIMIKO's acting and directing background would approach pop music so visually. Modern Dance isn't just about what happened; it's about how the story looks, how ridiculous it feels, and how you might eventually retell it to your friends once you've survived it.
Most importantly, the EP doesn't pretend that independence means being above the messiness of romance. KIMIKO's characters—and, presumably, some version of herself—are just as capable of making irrational decisions, obsessing over texts, ignoring red flags, and getting caught up in the rush of a new connection as anyone else. The difference is that she can turn those experiences into something funny, catchy, and strangely cathartic.
At only five songs in length, Modern Dance is an intentionally brief introduction to her own musical journey, but it leaves a strong impression. KIMIKO has arrived with a clear perspective: modern dating is confusing, occasionally humiliating, frequently hilarious, and absolutely worth writing a pop song about.
If this is merely the opening chapter of KIMIKO's “spirited musical universe,” there is plenty of reason to be curious about what comes next. Modern Dance suggests an artist who knows exactly how to turn romantic chaos into entertainment—and who has no intention of hiding the messy, funny, complicated person underneath the glitter.
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