On the heels of her double Grammy-nominated 2024 solo album The Collective, former Sonic Youth principal Kim Gordon will return March 13 with another new project, PLAY ME. The Matador album is led by the song “NOT TODAY” and is accompanied by a short film directed by Rodarte’s Kate and Laura Mulleavy.
“I started singing in a way I hadn’t sung in a long time,” Gordon says of the track. “This other voice came out.” Throughout, she again collaborates with Charli xcx/Yves Tumor producer Justin Raisen, who has worked on Gordon’s two prior solo efforts.
“We wanted the songs to be short,” she reveals. “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.”
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl plays drums on the song “Busy Bee,” which is based off a sample of Gordon speaking with Free Kitten bandmate Julia Cafritz during a 1990s promo appearance, while the title track finds Gordon rattling off a litany of real or imagined Spotify playlist names. “Things are branded in a way that tries to predict what your mood is before you have a mood,” she observes. “I find that interesting, and also really offensive.”
PLAY ME also includes a 2025 re-do of the last album’s “BYE BYE,” with Gordon substituting in new lyrics repurposed from the Trump administration’s groan-worthy “banned words” list (“they/them,” “peanut allergy,” “climate change”).
Here is the track list for PLAY ME:
PLAY ME
GIRL WITH A LOOK
NO HANDS
BLACK OUT
DIRTY TECH
NOT TODAY
BUSY BEE
SQUARE JAW
SUBCON
POST EMPIRE
NAIL BITER
BYEBYE25!
