Kim Gordon – PLAY ME

Despite her wild pivot into expressionistic noise on The Collective, Kim Gordon stepped into the challenge as if it were second nature. Guided by record producer and songwriter Justin Raisen, the Sonic Youth co-founder hopes to repeat the same success with PLAY ME after earning her first two Grammy nominations in 2025.

Building on the spiritual foundation established in The Collective, PLAY ME addresses current issues with directness. Whether or not she aims at her targets effectively is irrelevant, as Gordon has a long track record of exploring themes that extend beyond her bona fides as a feminist icon. But PLAY ME does find her at her most political, which in turn, ends up stripping away some of her clever non-sequiturs.

That is not to say that Gordon hasn’t lost her touch. On the driving “GIRL WITH A LOOK,” which features one of the album’s most propulsive beats, she explores the dualities of attraction and aversion. Inspired by the cult French filmmaker Catherine Breillat, who often explores women’s urges through societal taboos, she leaves enough ambiguities to allow interpretation of the scene she sets up. Whereas on the blissful krautrock of “NOT TODAY,” a breathy Gordon lays her Dada-esque lyrical expression with a familiar yet distinctive touch.

Where PLAY ME shows more of its blemishes comes from its uneven pairing of music and meaning. Raisen subjects Kim to rage rap on “BLACK OUT,” in which Gordon, while competently stretching her avant-garde approach, awkwardly stumbles sentiments like “Corporate rule, you be the cause/In all this red, white, and blue” over a weathered, metronomic tempo. She fares better over the industrial trap of “DIRTY TECH,” likely due to this being her second go-around at it, but her simplistic critique of hot-button topics like the uncontrollable rise of AI falls a little flat.

And then there’s “BYEBYE25!,” in which Gordon reprises The Collective track by going over a laundry list of left-wing ideals the current US administration adamantly opposes. She clearly enunciates these terms with the exhaustion she feels, openly voicing the alarming weakening of democratic norms. While timely, it also lacks the commanding urgency of the original, coming across as an inferior facsimile.

For someone who openly admits to not listening to modern music, Gordon could push back on some of the vanguard sounds she chooses to work with. While The Collective felt novel and boundary pushing, PLAY ME, though similarly adventurous, aims to reflect our daily anxieties with tired commentary that risks dating itself.