PLAY ME

If The Collective was punishing in its density, Play Me is its equal and opposite: leaner and more melodic without sacrificing invention. It's an album that reaffirms Gordon still knows how, and why, to push forward.

She takes on the Trump administration in "ByeBye25!", one landmark among many in her forward-thinking solo career. [Apr 2026, p.33]

The 12 tracks on Play Me unfurl as abstract sketches of real-time angst, collages wrapped in thorny roils and gritty yet entrancing textures. Play Me also includes some of Gordon’s most pop-leaning work.

Play Me is an album that never stops subverting expectations.

Full of ire and desire. .... Gordon is no luddite. She’s incorporating sounds and techniques that – and apologies for bringing age into it – most other septuagenarians would recoil from.

For a 2026 experimental capitalist-critique, dedicate half an hour of your time to this album. You won’t regret it.

‘Play Me’ provides a left turn that has no place being this jarring yet pleasurable from any ‘rock’ artist, let alone at 72.

Here, Kim Gordon effectively reflects the absurdity of the times, without claiming to offer a solution.

The album's blipping between hip-hop, footwork and a clutch of other electronic styles does carry a prêt-à-porter element, but one that hangs well on Gordon's frame with every new fit.

With the release of PLAY ME, Kim Gordon has mastered a modern mixture of distorted guitar and intense trip-hop beats. Gordon’s lyricism throughout the album is more politically confrontational than her past two solo records.

It succeeds by drawing in the listener and urging them to do some interpretative work. [Mar 2026, p.103]

At 72 Gordon is still smarter, more experimental and more inventive than just about anyone else in the art-rock sphere. [Apr 2026, p.78]

With [producer Justin] Raisen, she creates a powerhouse sound, one that twists so it can't be easily "curated", labeled, boiled down for vibes. [Apr 2026, p.87]

On every level, PLAY ME is the most populist and literalist music Gordon has ever made. There are fewer jagged ruptures than on her previous solo records, more clearly demarcated beats, hooks that resemble hooks. The loops recur and aren’t so violently flayed open.

Play Me is at its most interesting when removed from an easy genre.

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.