Review: Kim Gordon — PLAY ME
Music
Kim Gordon
PLAY ME
Matador Records
Street: 03.13.2026
Kim Gordon = Patti Smith + William S. Burroughs + Death Grips
Kim Gordon has always sliced into songs like razor blades, with her thick, raspy Rochester, New York accent that helped give Sonic Youth its punk rock snarl. Now decades in with the release of her third solo album PLAY ME, Gordon has once again found reinvention. Still bringing the noise. Still the same Gordon bite, but with hip-hop beats. All the songs on this record time out at about three minutes. The album is over pretty quickly, like two shakes of a lamb’s tail. However, Gordon doesn’t waste time; she stays straight and to the point — blunt like a baseball bat, heavy like a battle axe.
Gordon loads the record with trap, fuzz, glitch and beats that sound like sneakers rolling around in a clothes dryer. Gordon sounds comfortable and confident in this space. A familiar voice escaping out of modern noise with a siren call into the void as the world burns. “Make out jams / Turn out the lights / Neon Cowgirl / You like / Easy Rider / 70’s hippie / Spring pop, chill vibes, feel free,” Gordon sings on the title track “PLAY ME,” sounding like a slow-roll Public Enemy song mixed with Patti Smith stream of consciousness poetry. “Rich popular girl / Villain mode / Jazz in the background / Chillin’ after work / After school club / Ready for spring / All the feels.” This track sets vibes like slow-moving lava.
“BUSY BEE” is one of the biggest bangers of Gordon’s career. It grabs you like a meat hook. “Busy Bee taking money / Busy bee, like its honey,” Gordon sings at her nihilistic best. “God, he ain’t here / He ain’t here, he ain’t here/ God.” The track contains a sample of a media appearance from the 90s with bandmate Julie Cafritz from Free Kitten, while Dave Grohl rips drums with reckless intensity over Death Grips-like experimental/electronic/industrial chaos blasts. The track will burrow in your brain like a worm.
On “BLACK OUT,” Gordon sings with a Chuck D-fueled immediacy spliced with a touch of Flavor Flav whimsy. “In all this red, white and blue / Can’t replicate my view.” Gordon unleashes pissed-off energy. “AI may be the new season flu / Industrial waste, never goes out of taste.” On the track “Subcon,” Gordon sings about the ridiculous and the greed. “Strap it / He swings like a chainsaw massacre / Wanna go to Mars? / Then what? Then what? And then what?”
Gordon leaves no room for comfort in illusions. She shakes things up, just like Bob Dylan changing the words up in “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Gordon updates the track “BYE BYE” from her album The Collective (2024). “Mental health / Electric vehicle / Gulf of Mexico / Energy conversion / Gay / Bird flu / Advocate / Pregnant person / Immigrants / Intersex / Victim / Male dominated.” Gordon recites her free-flow poetry with words that crowd our social media. “Measles / Peanut allergies / Abortion / Commercial sex worker / Lesbian / Women / Bye Bye.” “BYE BYE 25!” is the perfect closing track. Gordon may seem like she’s just fluttering around the fringes, but she’s pushing against the center on the last day of the empire.
PLAY ME is an important record. It’s a cattle call. The record is dirty and filthy, yet clean, clear and sharp like ice water. Gordon shoves you into the future a moment beyond the immediate place you try desperately to stand in. Gordon is a time traveler; she’s seconds ahead, guiding us into a safe place to step into a place to reinvent. Chill vibes. Feel free. After all these years, Kim Gordon is at the peak of her career. Almost brand new. Standing taller on her own giant shoulders, rising higher. PLAY ME is a quick blast of energy. At 28 minutes, it still lands like an atomic bomb. —Russ Holsten
