On her first-ever solo album No Home Record, Kim Gordon displays an experimental style with her breathy vocals, crafting poetic images around digital dystopian flourishes.
Since her public divorce and the dissolution of Sonic Youth, Gordon has musically moved more into free improvisation instrumental noise rock with Body/Head. While there are some screeches and guitar strums No Home Record broadens Gordon’s palette fusing minimalism and arty modern pop-influenced styles with her no-wave background.
Opener “Sketch Artist” uses bows and strings combined with speaker busting bass bombs and electro keys as Gordon remains aloof form it all with her words. “Paprika Pony” kicks up the skittering trap percussion and chimes while “Hungry Baby” is a gas with its rambling bass, driving drum beat, feedback and distortion. It is an update to the passionate plea of “rock me” in a demented blues style garage rock shaker; a disk highlight.
The ominous strumming “Earthquake” and the blaring cacophony of “Air BnB” are the closest Gordon comes to her SY days, but this album is dominated by an experimental middle section. “Murdered Out” is the best of the run with its industrial metal distorting things around a killer groove, making a Gordon/Reznor collaboration seem possible while “Don’t Play It” focuses on Gordon’s chanting mantra and EDM beats. Perhaps a more likely future collaboration would be with St. Vincent as Gordon’s unique style is moving more and more towards the pop of the moment.
“Cookie Butter” keeps the dub/trap sound pulsing along while Gordon delivers first-person lyrics in confident style before shifting her gaze on another with droning power. The meaning of all the lyrics is mostly indecipherable and feeling based as Gordon keeps specifics to a minimum except an overriding sense of change which she is currently experiencing.
That poetic nature and Gordon’s vocal style has never been for everyone, and nothing has changed along those lines, but the wide-open musical palette where she is now crafting her tales is exciting with endless possibilities. The album wraps up with “Get Yr Life Back” as more spoken word poetry tumbles forth over clangs and feedback warbles, No Home Record wraps up on a positive note, proving Gordon is still pushing herself as an artist.
