This morning, bassist, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Kim Gordon announced her second-ever solo album, The Collective, which is set to arrive on March 8 via Matador Records. Accompanying the album announcement is lead single “BYE BYE,” a massive left-turn from the alt-rock world Gordon is most known for working out of. The song is industrial and flickers with collages of trap construction and blown-out synthesizers. “BYE BYE,” along with all of The Collective, done in collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, Charli XCX, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, John Cale, Yves Tumor) with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez.
English artist Josephine Pryde says of The Collective: “There was a space in Kim Gordon’s No Home Record. It might not have been a home and it might not have been a record, but I seem to recall there was a space. Boulevards, bedrooms, instruments were played, recorded, the voice and its utterances, straining a way through the rhythms and the chords, threaded in some shared place, we met there, the guitar came too, there fell a peal of cymbals, driving on the music. We listened, we turned our back to the walls, slithered through the city at night. Kim Gordon’s words in our ears, her eyes, she saw, she knew, she remembered, she liked. We were moving somewhere. No home record. Moving.
“Now I’m listening to The Collective. And I’m thinking, what has been done to this space, how has she treated it, it’s not here the same way, not quite. I mean, not at all. On this evidence, it splintered, glittered, crashed and burned. It’s dark here. Can I love you with my eyes open? “It’s Dark Inside.” Haunted by synthesized voices bodiless. Planes of projections. Mirrors get your gun and the echo of a well-known tune, comes in liminal, yet never not hanging around, part of the atmosphere, fading in and out, like she says – Grinding at the edges. Grinding at us all, grinding us away. Hurting, scraping. Sediments, layers, of recorded emissions, mined, twisted, refracted. That makes the music. This shimmering, airless geology, agitated, quarried, cries made in data, bounced down underground tunnels, reaching our ears. We recalled it – but not as a memory, more like how you recall a product, when it’s flawed.
“She sings ‘Shelf Warmer’ so it sounds like shelf life, it sounds radioactive, inside our relationships, juddering, the beats chattering, edgy, the pain of love in the gift shop, assembled in hollow booms, in scratching claps. Non-reciprocal gift giving, there is a return policy. But – novel idea – A hand and a kiss. How about that. Disruption. I would say that Kim Gordon is thinking about how thinking is, now. Conceptual artists do that, did that. ‘I Don’t Miss My Mind.’ The record opens with a list, but the list is under the title ‘BYE BYE.’ The list says milk thistle, dog sitter…. And much more. She’s leaving. Why is the list anxious? How divisive is mascara? It’s on the list. I am packing, listening to the list. Is it mine, or hers.
“She began seeking images from behind her closed eyes. Putting them to music. But I need to keep my eyes open as I walk the streets, with noise cancelled by the airbuds rammed in my ears. quiet, aware, quiet, aware, they chant at me. What could be going through Kim’s head as she goes through mine?”
Watch the music video for “BYE BYE” and check out Gordon’s upcoming tour dates below.
The Collective Artwork:
The Collective Tracklist:
BYE BYE
The Candy House
I Don’t Miss My Mind
I’m a Man
Trophies
It’s Dark Inside
Psychedelic Orgasm
Tree House
Shelf Warmer
The Believers
Dream Dollar
Kim Gordon’s Upcoming Tour Dates:
3/21 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
3/22 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
3/23 – Queens, NY @ Knockdown Center
3/27 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
3/29 – Ventura, CA @ Music Hall
3/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore