Album Review: Kim Gordon Sketches Her Own Vision with 'No Home Record'

After nearly 40 years in the music industry, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon proves her creative prowess with her debut solo album.

Written by Emily Gruner

In the epilogue of Kim Gordon’s 2015 memoir "Girl In A Band,” the enigmatic punk-rock icon leaves fans ready for her next chapter. Sonic Youth isover, and so is her marriage to fellow member Thurston Moore. Her daughter recently moved out for college, and she moved back to her hometown of Los Angelesto start her new life as a single woman. In the final pages of the book, we read of her making out with a guy in a car outside of her Airbnb as she settles back into LA to focus on her reinvention. So after that cliffhanger, what’s next?

Clearly that “next” had to be No Home Record. The track “Air BnB” gives a Kim Gordon fan some more insight into the infamous Airbnb, “Slated walls / 47 inch flat TV, yeah / Lounging / Daybed,” but also shows that this album is going to focus on her latest liberations and not her past grievances. Although this track is very similar to the experimental rock her former band is known for, it’s only one of the few songs that sonically trace back to her roots. There’s even something about this song and the other tracks reminiscent of Sonic Youth (“Earthquake,” “Murdered Out”) that take on the modern approach, showing Gordon isn’t comfortable with the traditional.

The other tracks represent a surprising departure, showing Gordon is entering this new chapter of her adulthood on her own terms and redefining the conventions of indie and noise rock every step of the way. The opening track, “Sketch Artist,” is already a shocking take on conventional punk as Gordon uses deep techno beats over her ominous mutter. But no one expected Gordon to venture into the hip-hop realm as she does on the third track of the record, “Paprika Pony,” a hypnotic trap banger strung together with an African piano melody.

What might be the only similarity between Gordon’s debut and her previous work is the free association of her lyrics, as she seemingly brainstorms throughout every song. Her simple phrases take on a hypnotic state in the standout “Cookie Butter”: “I saw / I knew / I remember / I liked / I met / I wake up / I wish” and so on. Coupled with her experimental sound, many people might end up with fascination and confusion in equal measure.

Some could simply say this is Gordon’s rebrand after her separation from Sonic Youth, while others will say this is just the beginning for the frontwoman. One thing is for certain — Gordon continues to push the boundaries of what is “conventional.” She’s plain weird, but it’s what she’s been successfully doing since the mid-1980s. Who thought reinventing yourself at 66 years old could be so cool?