Six years ago, the former Sonic Youth co-leader Kim Gordon released No Home Record, her first-ever solo album. It was fucking awesome. Two years ago, she followed it with The Collective, and that was even better. Today, Gordon, one of the most intimidatingly cool cultural figures ever to exist, announces that her third solo LP Play Me is coming out soon. Expect it to rule.
Gordon recorded Play Me with avant-pop producer Justin Raisen, her collaborator on her last two albums. On No Home Record and especially on The Collective, Gordon tapped into noisy circa-now rap sounds, and she did mind-bending things with them. According to the album’s press release, she’s going in a different direction on Play Me, dealing with krautrock beats. Lead single “Not Today” is a bleary, beautiful example of the form, and Gordon’s voice takes on a quality that’s a lot more more melodic and vulnerable than we’ve heard from her in recent years. Talking about that song, Gordon says, “I started singing in a way I hadn’t sung in a long time. This other voice came out.”
Here’s how Gordon describes the sound of Play Me:
We wanted the songs to be short. We wanted to do it really fast. It’s more focused, and maybe more confident. I always kind of work off of rhythms, and I knew I wanted it to be even more beat-oriented than the last one. Justin really gets my voice and my lyrics and he understands how I work — that came forth even more on this record.
On some of the album’s tracks, Gordon apparently delves into subjects like AI and encroaching fascism. Dave Grohl plays drums on “Busy Bee,” which opens with a ’90s-vintage spoken sample of Gordon’s old Free Kitten bandmate Julia Cafritz. Kate and Laura Mulleavy, founders of the fashion label Rodarte, directed the video, and it’s got Gordon in a custom-made hand-dyed silk tulle dress, looking as glamorous as ever. Check out that video and the Play Me tracklist below.
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TRACKLIST:
01 “Play Me”
02 “Girl With A Look”
03 “No Hands”
04 “Black Out”
05 “Dirty Tech”
06 “Not Today”
07 “Busy Bee”
08 “Square Jaw”
09 “Subcon”
10 “Post Empire”
11 “Nail Biter”
12 “ByeBye25!”
Play Me is out 3/13 on Matador. Pre-order it here. Check out our We’ve Got A File On You interview with Gordon here.
