Southern California singer-songwriter KiKi Holli + The Remedy shares Something About You, a cinematic new five-track EP. Across its compact runtime, Holli moves effortlessly between dream-pop haze, dark-wave shadows and alternative-rock intensity, creating songs that feel both intimate and cinematic. Desire, longing, memory and hope are the emotional currents beneath the record, but what makes the EP compelling is the way those feelings are translated into sound: spacious production, sweeping melodies and a vocal performance that can be vulnerable one moment and commanding the next.
The opening title track immediately establishes that world. “Something About You” is a slow-burning, sensual piece built around hypnotic rhythm, reverberant textures and a restrained guitar presence. There is a hint of trip-hop in its pulse and something almost film-noir-like in its atmosphere, but Holli’s vocal is what gives the track its emotional center. She doesn’t oversell the longing; instead, she lets it simmer. The effect is intimate and slightly mysterious, as though the listener has walked into the middle of a story rather than been given its beginning. That dark, hypnotic quality has also been singled out by Atwood Magazine.
“The Garden” provides the first major shift. Where the opener is nocturnal and seductive, this song feels sunlit. Acoustic guitar, layered vocals and a relaxed groove create a warmer, more expansive sound, while Holli lifts her voice into a lighter register. It is a song about possibility and fleeting happiness, and its arrangement mirrors that feeling: everything seems to breathe a little more freely. The contrast is important because it prevents the EP from becoming trapped in its darker aesthetic.
Then comes the record’s most intriguing gamble: a reimagining of INXS’s “Don’t Change. Covering such a recognizable song can be dangerous. A performer can either reproduce the original too faithfully or radically alter it until the emotional connection disappears. Holli takes a third route. The Remedy strips away much of the original’s stadium-sized urgency and replaces it with acoustic guitar, spacious keys and a far more vulnerable vocal approach. The song becomes a torch ballad, with the lyric’s yearning pushed to the foreground.
It is arguably the EP’s most successful example of interpretation rather than imitation. The familiar melody remains, but the emotional context changes. Holli’s theatrical background is particularly useful here: she sings the song as though inhabiting its emotional circumstances rather than simply performing the notes. Another independent review called this transformation one of the EP’s highlights, noting how the minimalist arrangement forces attention onto Holli’s voice.
“So Far Away” brings the electronic and alternative-rock elements back into focus. Jangling guitars, synth textures and a stronger rhythmic foundation give the EP a more propulsive moment, while Holli’s lower register adds weight to the sense of separation. The song captures the physicality of absence—the way distance can become something you carry rather than simply a measurement between two people.
It is also one of the places where the EP’s affection for 1980s alternative music becomes most apparent. The Cure is an obvious touchstone, but Holli isn’t attempting a retro exercise. Instead, she uses those sounds as emotional architecture: guitars and synths become shorthand for melancholy, nostalgia and romantic uncertainty. The track may be the EP’s most immediately accessible song, even if its influences are somewhat easier to identify.
And then comes “Brand New Day.” As the closing track, it could easily have become an overly neat resolution to an EP built around longing. Instead, the song earns its optimism. Punching electronic rhythms, pop-rock energy and a bigger vocal performance give Holli a chance to step out of the shadows created by the earlier tracks. The hooks are immediate, and there is a sense of physical movement that the first half of the EP deliberately avoids.
More importantly, the song feels like a release. The title isn’t merely optimistic branding; after four tracks concerned with attraction, memory, vulnerability and distance, something has changed. The closing track represents the emotional exhale. Recent coverage has similarly identified “Brand New Day” as a particularly effective finale, precisely because the hope feels earned by everything that comes before it.
What makes Something About You work is the tension between Holli’s theatrical instincts and the relatively restrained production. She clearly has the vocal ability to dominate these arrangements, but Ethan Allen’s production, mixing and co-writing keep the songs from becoming vocal showcases for their own sake. Instead, the voice is treated as another part of the atmosphere—sometimes intimate, sometimes commanding, sometimes almost ghostly.
That balance is crucial. The EP’s greatest strength isn’t any single genre reference. It’s the way Holli + The Remedy move between them without completely settling into one. Dream pop provides the haze, dark wave supplies the shadows, indie rock brings texture and the electronic elements give the songs a modern pulse. The result feels deliberately retro in places without becoming nostalgic for nostalgia’s sake.
There are moments when the production’s polish arguably comes close to smoothing out some of the rougher edges that might make the songs feel even more dangerous. “So Far Away,” in particular, wears its influences more openly than the title track, while some of the EP’s melodies take time to fully reveal themselves rather than immediately grabbing the listener. But that is also part of the project’s character: Something About You rewards immersion more than casual consumption.
And that may ultimately be its most compelling quality.
This is an EP about feelings that aren’t easily resolved—desire before certainty, happiness before it disappears, love after separation, and hope before you know exactly what comes next. Holli doesn’t try to turn those emotions into tidy answers. She turns them into scenes.
The theatrical background is therefore more than a biographical footnote. It is audible in the way she inhabits each song. Every track has a setting, a mood and a sense of movement, yet the EP remains cohesive because the emotional thread never breaks.
Something About You is a confident statement from an artist who appears increasingly comfortable occupying the space between pop accessibility and alternative experimentation. Its strongest moments arrive when Holli trusts atmosphere, restraint and interpretation rather than reaching for obvious spectacle.
The result is a sophisticated, nocturnal record with enough warmth to keep the darkness from becoming oppressive, and enough hooks to make the atmosphere linger after the final notes fade.
Verdict: 8.5/10
Standout tracks: “Something About You,” “Don’t Change,” “Brand New Day”
Bottom line: Something About You is an evocative, beautifully produced EP that turns longing into atmosphere and theatricality into intimacy. KiKi Holli + The Remedy have created a record that feels less like a collection of five songs than a short film you happen to experience through sound.
