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The Collective (Kim Gordon album)

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The Collective
A blurry photograph of a person's hands holding a phone and taking a photograph of themselves in a pink-hued room, with the title written over the top of the image in white
Studio album by
Kim Gordon
ReleasedMarch 8, 2024 (2024-03-08)
Genre
Length40:34
LabelMatador
Producer
Kim Gordon solo chronology
No Home Record
(2019) 		The Collective
(2024)

The Collective is the second solo studio album by the American musician Kim Gordon, released on March 8, 2024, by Matador Records. It received acclaim from critics. It also received two nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Music Album and Best Alternative Music Performance (for "Bye Bye").[1]

Background and recording

[edit]

The album was inspired in part by Jennifer Egan's 2022 novel The Candy House. Producer Justin Raisen sent Gordon several instrumental tracks, over which Gordon sang vocals and added distortion effects. Gordon also said that she wanted the album to be "more beat-oriented" than her last album, 2019's No Home Record.[2]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic84/100[3]
Review scores
SourceRating
DIY[4]
Exclaim!8/10[5]
The Line of Best Fit8/10[6]
Mojo[7]
NME[8]
Pitchfork8.5/10[9]
Record Collector[10]
The Skinny[11]
Uncut8/10[12]
The Wire[13]

The Collective received a score of 84 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 16 critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[3] The Wire felt that "hard edged synths and massive, crunchy beats lend righteous swagger to Gordon's bleary guitar squalls and jetlagged sprechstimme",[13] while Mojo opined that "'The Candy House''s garbled distress flare or the My Bloody Neubauten of 'I Don't Miss My Mind' confirm she is still picking up signals nobody else can".[7] Uncut stated that "there's little identifiable guitar until track five, by which time anxiety and menace have taken hold thanks to the lumbering mien of 'Bye Bye' and 'I'm a Man''s monstrous grind. 'Shelf Warmer' lets in some air but it too is fabulously foul".[12] Record Collector's Jeremy Allen wrote that on The Collective, "the needle flickers high into the red with layer upon layer of digital distortion and some of the filthiest beats known to man".[10]

Stereogum named it album of the week, with the website's Chris DeVille writing that the album's "glory" is "the Sonic Youth co-founder's ability to comfortably step into that kind of decayed SoundCloud rap environment while also infusing it with the experimental rock swagger that has been her own signature for over four decades. The screeching, booming, slow-crawling production feels alien to Gordon's catalog, but she makes it entirely her own".[14] Jack Faulds of The Skinny observed that the album "leans further into the heavy dub and trap stylings introduced on 2019's No Home Record" and "manages to hit that sweet spot, creating an album that is adventurous, charmingly deadpan and visceral at every turn".[11]

Reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Shaad D'Souza described it as "a maelstrom of mundane thoughts and funny asides and flashes of pure rage whipped into a heavy, unnerving fog. It sounds how TikTok brain feels".[9] Charlotte Marston of DIY found it to be "a more cut-and-paste type affair" with "Kim continuing to funnel uncomfortable truths through skulking trip-hop sounds and dank industrial rhythms".[4] The Line of Best Fit's Callum Foulds stated that "There is no one out there doing it like Kim Gordon, and her return to music with The Collective proves that she is still the coolest person in music".[6]

Oliver Crook of Exclaim! wrote that The Collective "isn't easy to listen to. Its jarring, angular beats—courtesy of producer Justin Raisen—are challenging, the chugging electronics, freewheeling guitar and snarled spoken word at odds with melody".[5] NME's Jordan Bassett opined that Gordon "balances her less than commercial sensibilities with crunchily on-trend production and relatable lyrics about rotten capitalism and fragile masculinity".[8] Kory Grow of Rolling Stone called it Gordon's "own unique spin on noisy hip-hop", also stating that "the songs come off as avant-garde, trap, old-school hip-hop, noisy, or musique concrète depending on where you drop the needle".[15]

Year-end lists

[edit]
Select year-end rankings for The Collective
Publication/critic Accolade Rank Ref.
Bleep Top 10 Albums of 2024 6 [16]
MOJO 75 Best Albums of 2024 10 [17]
Rough Trade UK Albums of the Year 2024 37 [18]
Uncut 80 Best Albums of 2024 30 [19]

Track listing

[edit]

All lyrics are written by Kim Gordon.

The Collective track listing
No.TitleMusicLength
1."Bye Bye"
4:14
2."The Candy House"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
2:21
3."I Don't Miss My Mind"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
3:25
4."I'm a Man"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
  • Anthony Paul Lopez
4:31
5."Trophies"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
  • Lopez
2:36
6."It's Dark Inside"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
  • Lopez
3:35
7."Psychedelic Orgasm"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
  • Lopez
3:40
8."Tree House"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
4:06
9."Shelf Warmer"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
4:11
10."The Believers"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
  • Je. Raisen
  • Lopez
4:55
11."Dream Dollar"
  • Gordon
  • Ju. Raisen
  • Joe Kennedy
3:00
Total length:40:34

Personnel

[edit]
  • Kim Gordon – vocals, guitars
  • Justin Raisen – production, mixing, engineering, programming, instrumentation
  • Anthony Paul Lopez – mixing, engineering (all tracks); programming (tracks 4–9), instrumentation (tracks 5–7)
  • Mike Bozzi – mastering
  • Brad Lauchert – engineering
  • Ainjel Emme – programming (tracks 1, 3 and 10)
  • Sadpony – production, programming (tracks 1 and 10); instrumentation (track 10)
  • Sarah Register – instrumentation (tracks 8 and 9)
  • Joe Kennedy – programming, instrumentation (track 11)

Charts

[edit]
Chart performance for The Collective
Chart (2024) Peak
position
Australian Vinyl Albums (ARIA)[20] 15
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] 55
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[22] 46
Scottish Albums (OCC)[23] 12
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 52
UK Album Downloads (OCC)[25] 11
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[26] 6
US Top Album Sales (Billboard)[27] 40

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Atkinson, Katie (November 8, 2024). "Grammy Nominations 2025: See the Complete List". Billboard. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
  2. ^ Zoladz, Lindsay (February 29, 2024). "Kim Gordon's Coolest Act Yet". The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "The Collective by Kim Gordon Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Marston, Charlotte (March 6, 2024). "Kim Gordon – The Collective review". DIY. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Crook, Oliver (March 8, 2024). "Kim Gordon Embraces Apocalypse on The Collective". Exclaim!. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Foulds, Callum (March 7, 2024). "Kim Gordon: The Collective Review – thrilling tribute". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Kim Gordon – The Collective". Mojo. April 2024. p. 88.
  8. ^ a b Bassett, Jordan (March 7, 2024). "Kim Gordon – The Collective review: experimental trap from Sonic Youth icon". NME. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  9. ^ a b D'Souza, Shaad (March 8, 2024). "Kim Gordon: The Collective Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  10. ^ a b Allen, Jeremy (February 28, 2024). "The Collective | Kim Gordon". Record Collector. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Faulds, Jack (March 4, 2024). "Kim Gordon album review: The Collective". The Skinny. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Kim Gordon – The Collective". Uncut. March 2024. p. 26.
  13. ^ a b "Kim Gordon – The Collective". The Wire. March 2024. p. 46.
  14. ^ DeVille, Chris (March 5, 2024). "Kim Gordon The Collective Album Review". Stereogum. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  15. ^ Grow, Kory (March 7, 2024). "Four Decades Into Her Career, Kim Gordon Is Still Exploding Our Expectations". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  16. ^ Bleep. "Top 10 Albums of the Year 2024". Bleep. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
  17. ^ "MOJO's 75 Best Albums of 2024". albumoftheyear.org. November 11, 2024. Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  18. ^ "Albums of the Year 2024". roughtrade.com. November 19, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  19. ^ Pearis, Bill (November 8, 2024). "List Season comes early with Uncut's Top 80 Albums of 2024". brooklynvegan.com. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  20. ^ "ARIA Top 20 Vinyl Albums Chart". Australian Recording Industry Association. March 18, 2024. Retrieved March 15, 2024.
  21. ^ "Ultratop.be – Kim Gordon – The Collective" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  22. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – Kim Gordon – The Collective". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  23. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  24. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Kim Gordon – The Collective". Hung Medien. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  25. ^ "Official Album Downloads Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  26. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  27. ^ "Kim Gordon Chart History (Top Album Sales)". Billboard. Retrieved November 9, 2024.
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