Musician and visual artist Kim Gordon returns with her second solo album, The Collective, which will be released March 8th on Matador. Its lead track, âBYE BYE,â is out now, driven by a snaking bassline which guides us through a haunting packing list. Gordon will also play six live shows around The Collectiveâs arrival, beginning March 21 in Burlington, Vt. (Check out the full list of dates below).
A video for âBYE BYEâ stars Coco Gordon Moore and was directed by photographer and filmmaker Clara Balzary, with cinematography by Christopher Blauvelt. Click here to watch.
The Collective:
There was a space in Kim Gordonâs 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 Gordonâs words in our ears, her eyes, she saw, she knew, she remembered, she liked. We were moving somewhere. No home record. Moving.
Now Iâm listening to The Collective. And Iâm thinking, what has been done to this
space, how has she treated it, itâs not here the same way, not quite. I mean, not at all. On this evidence, it splintered, glittered, crashed and burned. Itâs dark here. Can I love you with my eyes open? âItâs Dark Inside.â 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 â but not as a memory, more like how you recall a product, when itâs flawed.
She sings âShelf Warmerâ 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 â 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. âI Donât Miss My Mind.â The record opens with a list, but the list is under the title âBYE BYE.â The list says milk thistle, dog sitterâŚ. And much more. Sheâs leaving. Why is the list anxious? How divisive is mascara? Itâs 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 Kimâs head as she goes through mine?
– Written by English artist Josephine Pryde
Recorded in Gordonâs native Los Angeles, The Collective follows her 2019 full-length debut No Home Record and continues her collaboration with producer Justin Raisen (Lil Yachty, John Cale, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charli XCX, Yves Tumor), with additional production from Anthony Paul Lopez. The album advances their joint world building, with Raisinâs damaged, blown out dub and trap constructions playing the foil to Gordonâs intuitive word collages and hooky mantras, which conjure communication, commercial sublimation and sensory overload.
‘The Collective’ track list:
1. BYE BYE
2. The Candy House
3. I Donât Miss My Mind
4. Iâm a Man
5. Trophies
6. Itâs Dark Inside
7. Psychedelic Orgasm
8. Tree House
9. Shelf Warmer
10. The Believers
11. Dream Dollar
KIM GORDON ON TOUR:
March 21: Burlington, Vt. (Higher Ground)
March 22: Washington, D.C. (Black Cat)
March 23: Queens, N.Y. (Knockdown Center)
March 27: Los Angeles, CA (The Regent Theater)
March 29: Ventura, CA (Music Hall)
The March 30: San Francisco, CA (Fillmore)
Follow Kim Gordon:
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