No Home Record - Kim Gordon: Review
is a California via New York singer-songwriter who served as a key piece of legendary rock band Sonic Youth for nearly 30 years. After the band broke up in 2011 Kim took a long time exploring other musical ventures and even working on projects across other mediums before dropping her debut solo single Murdered Out in 2016. Three years later she announced a new record and dropped a string of critically acclaimed singles in the lead up to its release.
Review By Lavender:
Sonic Youth is one of the greatest rock bands of all time and the combination of Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon was one that shined across a number of different rock genres and styles. Despite the long wait for solo material I don't think there's anyone that expected Kim to run out of creativity, and the wild singles for this record confirmed that she had a lot more experimentation left in her. Here on her debut solo record No Home Record she manages to get it right most of the time.
One of the songs that I didn't really enjoy off the record was its lead single, one that I had completely forgotten about since it was released in 2016. Murdered Out just sounds even weaker and more out of place on the record than it did as an already kind of shaky single. I like it less than I did when it first came out and when surrounded by better songs it comes off as wandering and disorganized, far from thriving in its chaos.
Thankfully when this era truly started last month the singles improved, and my hype for this record increased dramatically. Sketch Artist is an absolutely insane track that I adore that serves as an incredibly bold lead single and an opening track that gets the album off to a throttling start. The strange synthetic beats and Kim's brash and haunting singing are such a compelling combination for a tune that never lets you rest in the best way. Air BnB was the next single and I'm not quite as in love with it as the first one. It does have some distortion heavy guitar breakdown that are awesome but the track is ultimately just a decent version of what Sketch Artist did better. Thankfully the third single released just before the record dropped was another hit with Hungry Baby. The song has some absolutely killer guitar riffs with enough of a twang to remind me on an Iceage song, over this Kim drops a snarky but commanding lead vocal performance for one of the most conventional rock tunes on the record, but also one of the hardest hitting.
While most of what is left here is good there is some rough spots to get out of the way quickly. Cookie Butter is probably the worst and most patience testing song here with the mind numbing repetitious vocal passages, I seriously think I would have enjoyed this more as a six minute drone than what the song ended up being. Earthquake is a song I want to like but it just seems to be wandering and I never really working towards anything and I'm not really sure what the point of it is especially coming off Hungry Baby it just slows the momentum down.
The rest of whats here is pretty watertight starting with Paprika Pony. This is the track that really pushes the boundaries of what Kim has done with rock music in her career as she hops on a very contemporary trap beat. I'm not kidding either this thing sounds like a London On Da Track tune but a really good one that is stark, distant and captivating. Her slow and confounding lead vocal performance is intimate and excellent making for a standout track. Don't Play It is a strange and surreal song with a super tight half beat and entrancing repetition of its title refrain. The shrill guitar that wails in the background as well as the electonic vocal manipulation is a strange sensation but a great one that makes for a fantastic overall tune. Get Yr Life Back is the closing track with a stark and brooding spoken word performance that is even more on the nose than any of Kim's other leads on the album. These haunting vocal swirl over the song through its multiple passages which vary from atmospheric to straight up horror for one of the most unique tracks on the record and a very solid end.
No Home Record is a solid collection of tracks that has too many down moments given its runtime, but when it shines it really shines delivering some of the most creative and abstract rock music I've heard in 2019, courtesy of someone responsible for so many classics. While I don't see this album being one of the most essential or important rock records of the year it is by all means one worth hearing, and I look forward to anything Kim may do next. 7/10
