Album Review Kim Gordon - No Home Record

Kim Gordon is a certified pop culture icon. As a founding member of Sonic Youth she became a role model for a generation. Since then she’s done everything from producing a critically-acclaimed Hole record to writing a much-lauded memoir. It seems crazy to think that it has taken until 2019 for her to release a solo album. ‘No Home Record’ is everything a Kim Gordon record should be: provocative, challenging and effortlessly cool. Lead single ‘Sketch Artist’ is a textbook example, featuring blasts of throbbing bass and Nine Inch Nails-esque white noise. ‘Earthquake’ is a similarly disorienting blur of creaking metal and distant guitar strums. And the post-punk guitars of ‘AirBnB’ supply a crunching chorus that could easily have been lifted from a Sonic Youth record. At times, ‘No Home Record’ sounds like the workings of some monstrous factory. It’s a strange, industrial trip that’s full of experimentation. Kim’s signature vocal style - a kind of husky, gasping whisper - is as recognisable as ever, though. And like with the best moments of her career, here she is uncompromising in her artistic vision.