In the early ‘80s, Kim Gordon (US) co-founded the superb groundbreaking guitar-noise band Sonic Youth, which abruptly ceased to exist exactly 15 years ago. She has since had an indelible influence on music, art, literature and film.

After a career spanning some 40 years, she unexpectedly ‘debuted’ solo in 2019 with the phenomenal No Home Record. She also made a big impression with her second solo album The Collective. That resulted in concerts at AB in 2022 (there was quite a Covid gap between the release of No Home Record and 2022) and 2024 (a concert co-organised by AB at the prestigious Bozar) respectively.

Enter: PLAY ME, Gordon’s third album, again produced by Justin Raisen, who previously also manned the dials for Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira and Yves Tumor. Gordon says she opted for more “melodic beats and the motorik drive of krautrock”. And also: “We wanted the songs to be short. 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.”

The most remarkable track is BYEBYE25!, a remake of BYE BYE, the original opening track of The Collective. A stream of words hailing from “Trump’s banned words list, terms the administration has flagged to cancel grant and research proposals”. And breath uneasily:

Mental health
Electric vehicle
Gulf of Mexico
Energy conversion
Gay
Bird flu
Advocate
Pregnant person
Immigrants
Intersex
Victim
Male dominated
Care
Diversity
Tribal
Transgender
Hispanic
Green
Fluoride
Female
Hate
Injustice
Opportunity
Dietary guidelines
Housing for the future