Hi everyone, Playthony Metano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Kim Gordon album, PLAY ME.

Here we have the newest full-length LP from singer, songwriter, experimental rock pioneer, game changer, Miss Kim Gordon. When it comes to any and all things alternative music, Kim truly has a reputation that precedes her. Even today, even at age 72.

Obviously, her tenure in Sonic Youth made her one of the most significant figures in underground music. And even though they disbanded in the early 2010s, Kim continues to turn heads with the occasional musical side quest.

But she's really been focusing on her solo career as of late, especially after making waves with the really impressive The Collective album back in 2024, where mostly working with producer Justin Raisen, her and Justin pulled together all of these distortion-heavy, industrially-tinged hip-hop tracks that were tense, odd, abstract, and raw in all the right ways.

Kim and Justin even revamped the most popular track off of the record, "BYE BYE", last year in 2025, and that newer version of that track is featured on the tracklist of this new album over here too. And given how quickly PLAY ME has come together and some of the hip-hop-inspired teasers in the lead-up to this album, it feels like with this one, Kim is just trying to strike while the iron is hot.

She is working once again with Justin, too, who, just to remind you, in the past has provided production and support for the likes of Lil Yachty, Drake, Yves Tumor, and even Charli XCX.

But going into PLAY ME, for the most part, what I expected was really just a second helping of The Collective on some level, or at least something that is equally as focused in whatever direction it happens to head in.

Sadly, though, PLAY ME is notably shorter than its predecessor, The Collective, and I'm actually kind of surprised that the 2025 version of "BYE BYE" still actually manages to be one of the best tracks here. Because, yeah, it's been over a year since its original version, and Kim and Justin have not managed to drum up a track that somehow has a more interesting or compelling concept.

In fact, I would argue there's a good chunk of this album that feels like Kim and Justin, in a way, have regressed a bit and are delivering sounds that are somehow less original, interesting, and standout than much of The Collective. I mean, at least it happens while attempting to branch out and try some other things, I guess.

For example, the title track, where it feels like Justin's heavy, lumbering production and Kim's tense, weary vocals are coalescing over this combination of jazz rap and trip-hop. That's actually not that bad, given how weird that combination of vibes looks on paper.

But then, following this, we have "GIRL WITH A LOOK", which is like some really ghostly indie pop that honestly could have used some more structure. But then "NO HANDS" feels almost like a poppification of what Justin and Kim were doing previously, but, uh, just awkward, given the more direct rap beats and the very grating use of autotune.

Then, after this, "BLACK OUT" feels almost like what you would get if you put Kim on top of a Metro Boomin beat, one that was meant for 21 Savage, with a kind of muddy metal riff repeating in the background occasionally.

And again, it's okay as an experiment, but the final result and execution leave a lot to be desired. It's a very tedious listen, which I would also say for "DIRTY TECH", which isn't much better despite the production taking a way more bouncy approach.

For some reason, it just feels like Justin and Kim are favoring a lot of beats that maybe would have hit back in 2013, but just sound kind of stale now. Meanwhile, "NOT TODAY" is a really dreamy indie rock number. Aesthetically, this song does feel a little more in Kim's usual wheelhouse, but what we're hearing here comes across like something you would hear from a band that's delivering a really pale imitation of what groups such as Sonic Youth did back in the day at their peak.

The second half of the record delivers some more interesting ideas and surprises, though. "BUSY BEE", for example, has a Dave Grohl music credit of all things. I imagine from some of the live drums laced into the track. And there's definitely something more to this song's noisier production, abstract structure, weird-pitched found-sound spoken-word passages, and its heavy use of vocal effects, too. This feels a lot more experimental in comparison to how this record started off.

Then, after this, "SQUARE JAW" might not be necessarily surprising when comparing it to anything that was previously released on The Collective, but it's still just as good as many of that album's highlights, and would have fit very nicely into the tracklist if you had to swap another song out.

Then "SUBCON"'s intensely bassy, compressed production scratches some very weird itches. I could see Death Grips fans getting down with this, or maybe even people who really fuck with Butthole Surfers' "Pepper", or even the current strain of very distortion-heavy underground hip-hop artists. And sure, while not altogether new, definitely more specific to what Justin and Kim are doing, as opposed to much of what the tracklist has delivered so far.

I also like "POST EMPIRE"'s combination of rustic, distorted guitar licks and Kim's more melodic vocal approach, as well as some of the harmony layers she provides on the track. It feels almost like Kim and Justin are giving their specific combination of abstract and industrial hip-hop kind of a pop appeal. Then with "NAIL BITER", I love the crackling, sizzling distortion and bass this one offers at the start. It is seriously sinister and contributes to a pretty strong ending for the album.

But ending the whole thing off with this new version of "BYEBYE25!" tacked on to the very end, I feel like we're almost hearing the leftovers, or I don't know, the afterbirth from what was that album and era for Justin and Kim, because there's just not as much meat on the bones here.

Once more, the best tracks feel like they could have appeared on that album. Meanwhile, everything else feels like a mix of either neutered alternative pop or rock, or like what would happen if Kim were made to put together a bunch of tracks for a prospective DatPiff mixtape.

So yeah, while PLAY ME did have some highlights on it for sure, this will most likely be the last time I'm playing it, mostly due to a very underwhelming first leg, and it just paling in comparison to its predecessor, which is why I'm feeling a strong 5 to a light 6 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Kim Gordon. Forever.