New Solo Kim Gordon

I was fully prepared for this to suck based on some of the reviews mentioned upthread but this is actually good? but also I don't think it's some massive radical departure for her, she's doing the same deadpan talky singing she's been doing for like 40 years, the "btw Kim is rapping now" stuff is mostly bullshit

― Colonel Poo, Sunday, March 10, 2024 9:36 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

this is 100% otm. she's drawing a line between the noisy industrial stuff that was percolating when sonic youth was starting and the abrasive rage rap that's all the (ahem) rage right now.

the execution varies from song to song imo. don't love the drum programming on a lot of these, but i do like "i'm a man," "bye bye," and especially "i don't miss my mind"

2 stars in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/10/kim-gordon-the-collective-review

lol at complaining about there being too much distortion and cacophony, and the last sentence seems horribly patronising - "Hopefully she’ll try again soon though." - fuck off?

Pile of shit review. I prefer the one from my 21yo who walked in and said "what the fuck is this?" then "holy shit, really?"

Annoyingly she's playing London the same night as the Breeders. A clash of Kims

Kim's lyrics have always been 95% abysmal, it's sort of part of what is appealing about her whole thing— they're so bad and forced that the boldness of someone speak-singing them is weirdly magnetic.

I like Body/Head a lot, and am friendly with a lot of people who know KG and say she's the best. I don't doubt it. I'm glad she's still making music and doing weird shit, and as others have said, it's certainly better than Thurston's bad poetry or continued posturing.

when thurston played around the corner from me - 2018? - and did his instrumental guitar thing with deb googe it was pretty cool. plus, DEB GOOGE. also, he was smart enough to have an ilxor open up for him and it was nice to hang out with them. plus, thurston spent money at my store.

i thought body/head was interesting. i really like bill and what he does.

also, thurston can do the instro free skronk thing (especially in duo) as well as any other rock person when he wants to. not to be captain-save-a-thurston or anything.

Yeah, I mean, setting aside (I know, I know) the personal issues with Thurston, he's still done some interesting stuff since SY split. His bad poetry is indeed bad and not needed, but that three disc instrumental thing, Spirit Counsel, was really good.

And I seem to be in the minority, but I actually liked that Chelsea Light Moving band he briefly had with Samara Lubelski and Keith Wood.

Kim's lyrics have always been 95% abysmal, it's sort of part of what is appealing about her whole thing— they're so bad and forced that the boldness of someone speak-singing them is weirdly magnetic.

my only complaint about The Collective (cd) is the bass (kicks & low freqs) are mixed so loud that i can't turn up the volume unless the bass pot is dialed back to 20% on my receiver, making everything else sound thin asF. it's a gnarly sounding album, which is pleasing.

this isn't bad but the idea of it is better than it actually is. like it's cool and exciting she's making something that sounds like this but i'm not really moved by the result

I'm finding the thing (album) to be sonically pleasing and interesting on a sound design / production level. Not bcz 'omg, it's kim gordon--she's 70 years old, how audacious!)' ... it's a compelling listen. I'm into free-form noise art and have a couple of body/head CDs, but they haven't grabbed me like this one has. still haven't heard no home record

To my ears this is a lot better than No Home Record - more “of a piece” in a way that’s sticky, that makes me want to return to it.

Body/Head is overall more my thing but that’s probably because noisy guitars

I'm with ufo. The monochromatic mood and pace aren't attracting me yet.

there are things to like about it for sure and i think it's onto something with the mix of sounds here, i just don't love it. i would love to hear more noise rock/rage fusion like "bye bye" for sure

only listened a couple times but nothing seemed to reach the high of ‘bye bye’, although there are some pretty cool beats and i liked the vocal distortion effect on some songs

one thing is for sure, anyone who likes this album should listen to the song "x & sex" by osamason