Kim Gordon – ‘Play Me’ album review: Industrial punk urgency
When Pink Panthress recently brazenly told the world that “a song doesn’t need to be longer than two minutes-30,” I turned my obnoxious nose up at such a claim. That’s a threat to the sanctity of art, I said, revolted by such a futuristic view. While her own artistry chipped away at the veneer of my defence, Kim Gordon’s latest album Play Me has outright pierced it with a collection of bitesize songs that showcase just how succinct ideas can be.
The Skinny: Almost like a tube of fruit pastilles, each song is like a short sugar rush, ranging from sweet and sour along the way, keeping you desperately plunging further down the packet for more after each one. Sound effects are cleverly used like vignettes that flash into view and leave before you’ve even had a chance to make a relationship with them. But while you’re pining for more, be it a snare drum or an arpeggio, Gordon is on to the next idea with fury.
It’s clearly short and puncy by design. The words ‘fast’ and ‘focused’ are frequent in the press materials. The lyrics are pointed, and rhythms lead the way by design, too. Yet, that doesn’t quite do service to how such a pacy and blunt approach plays into the present.
The beat is certainly the MVP on Play Me, introduced to you warmly with horn flourishes on the title-track opener which sounds like it’s straight out of the East-Coast rap playbook. But any ideas that this record is an exercise in nostalgia are swiftly booted out by the snare roll of ‘Black Out’ and ‘Square Jaw’ that thrust Gordon’s urgent vocals into a very modern yet caustic soundscape.
There’s a restlessness to Gordon’s voice which seems to fit the entire world she has crafted with Justin Raisen. It’s glitchy, uncertain and unpredictable, a style to which Gordon provides the perfect narration, fluctuating between helplessness and confidence at an even more unpredictable pace. It’s a record in flux.
Not that it’s even the point on Play Me, but there is very little in the way of discernible melody. As Gordon outlined, the rhythm is driving her forward into the record’s heart of darkness, and so whatever delicacy the vocal melodies try to provide, they get lost in the echoey ether of this crumbling industrial world. That harshness imbues it with vitality, but can also make it a little relentless come the close.
The Verdict: It’s brutal, unrelenting and at times jarring, even for Gordon’s standards. But ultimately, that is the absolute point of the record, being released in a time of desperate societal and political urgency. We have little time to waste with anything, so why should Gordon with her run times or ideas? This is modern punk, providing a purpose that goes beyond the artifice of rebellion.
Standout Track: ‘Busy Bee’
Release Date: March 13th, 2025 | Producer: Justin Raisen | Label: Matador Records
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