PLAY ME By Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon’s Play Me offers a fresh new side to Gordon’s offbeat new wave sound. The album, released in March of 2026, feels unapologetically her. I was first taken with how she plays with blending different genres, singing over samples that feel reminiscent of 90’s hiphop, beats seemingly pulled straight from modern trap or EDM, or heavy drum beats and guitar riffs that feel more classic new wave. Over all of it is Kim Gordon speak-singing about issues that are close to her heart: the rise of AI, her rise into the music industry among men, and the future of the United States under Trump’s regime.
I saw the Play Me tour about two weeks ago in Berlin. That show stunned me. From the graphics, to each instrumentalist, to Kim Gordon’s unshakably intimidating demeanor, I was locked in. I was dazzled by the experimental graphics onscreen and unnerved, yet comforted by the way that Kim Gordon felt very true to herself onstage. She did what she came to do. She put on a show, but she didn’t put on a facade. There was no “How are we feeling Berlin?!” followed by screams of excitement from the audience. She barely engaged with the audience at all besides saying a few things about the last time she played in Berlin. At first I waited for her to greet the audience, but once I realized she wouldn’t, I felt somewhat relieved. She didn’t put on an act. Her music is as truthful to herself as she is onstage. Why put on a fake personality when you are already opening yourself up to the world?
In Play Me, Kim Gordon seamlessly blends the past, present, and future. Gordon is able to vulnerably show her unique perspective as a woman in the music industry— an industry loitered with men— and juxtapose it with what being a woman in the modern United States looks like. It’s no easy task as the majority of listeners are not punk icons who have already navigated the music industry and the world at large. So even if we as listeners can’t directly relate to Gordon, she gets us as close to her lived experience as possible. It doesn’t feel like there is some major distance between the art, the artist, and the listener. It all connects and makes sense.
The album and the tour feel genuine to Kim Gordon. She isn’t trying to be one genre or one kind of performer. She cannot be boxed in. Each song is so different from the last, but they all blend together with her voice and her message. She is the throughline in every way.