What Comes Next (2026)
Okay, some context first, because it matters. Kaiyah Mercedes wrote these songs at 17, right in the wreckage of a breakup. Then they put them away. Three years later, at 20, they came back to them with a fresh perspective and a producer who knew exactly how to make them hit. So What Comes Next isn't just a breakup EP. It's a 20-year-old going back through their 17-year-old self's diary, keeping all the honest parts, and adding some great instrumentation. Five tracks, one breakup, and the long, unglamorous stretch after it. Also, unrelated but very related: if anyone is booking openers for Eliza & The Delusionals, I have a name for you!
I'm Gonna Be Famous (How Cute!) kicks the door in with a grin. It's meta, cheeky, and completely carefree, aimed squarely at the exes and hangers-on who try to take credit for your glow-up, and it gives them exactly the eye-roll they deserve. But the detail I keep coming back to is the Y2K-style phone vocals tucked into the background. It sounds like a voice coming through a flip phone in 2004. It adds texture, it adds attitude, and it's the kind of tiny production choice that tells you someone really cared.
3 Month Blackout shifts gears into something more restless. Driving acoustic strums, a guitar-and-drum backbone, and a full 2000s pop-rock feel, the kind of song that belongs on a burned CD with the tracklist written in Sharpie. It builds and drops without warning, which is exactly what a short-lived whirlwind feels like, so the structure is literally doing the storytelling. It's also the first real showcase of Kaiyah's range, and they make it look easy.
Miss Me keeps the vocal clinic going, this time over powerful guitars. The secret weapon is the backing vocals, which play call-and-response with the lead. The song lives in that frustrating gap where your brain knows you made the right call and your body hasn't gotten the memo yet. If you've been there, you know. If you haven't, well... lucky you.
Seventeen slows the pulse with halftime choruses and turns inward. It's about being young in a relationship that makes you feel like you're too much, and it's the most introspective moment on the EP. The duo harmonies with Emily Moyse are gorgeous, layered and soft but never flimsy, still carrying that 2000s pop-rock spine with real strength and emotion underneath. Kaiyah has called it their favorite song they've ever made. After a handful of listens, I completely understand.
Then 555 closes things out by refusing to rush, which, after four songs of emotional whiplash, feels like someone finally opening a window. It's one of the longest tracks on the EP and the most patient: piano-driven, with acoustic fingerpicking and a dreamy haze while strings quietly creep in from the edges. Just when you think it's going to stay gentle the whole way, it builds into a big, cathartic release before landing on a spoken word outro. Ending a breakup EP on the nervous bravery of falling for someone again is the right call. Hope sneaks in at the last second. So do the tissues. Plan accordingly!
What Comes Next covers a lot of ground in five songs: defiance, whiplash, grief, self-doubt, and a cautious, clear-eyed kind of hope. It never stays in one feeling long enough to wallow, and that's exactly why it works. Kaiyah already has two albums under their belt, but this feels like the moment it all clicks into something more confident and more them. Naarm/Melbourne readers, they're celebrating with a full-band launch at The Espy Basement on October 23rd. Go and report back in the comments below. I need to know just how much ass is kicked at the show, because I’m expecting there will be a lot!
