Gina Birch – I Play My Bass Loud (vinyl album)

Released February 24, 2023, I Play My Bass Loud is Gina Birch’s debut solo album and a bold statement from one of the most important figures in post-punk. As a founding member of The Raincoats, Birch helped redefine what a band could sound like: intuitive, fractured, open, political, funny, and free. On this record, she brings that same spirit into a direct and unmistakably personal solo form.

The title says much of what needs to be said. This is an album about presence. About taking up space. About making noise without asking permission. Birch’s bass is not just an instrument here, but a declaration: physical, insistent, and central to the emotional architecture of the songs.

Across tracks including “I Play My Bass Loud,” “Pussy Riot,” “I Am Rage,” “I Will Never Wear Stilettos,” and “Dance Like A Demon,” Birch moves through feminist defiance, humour, memory, anger, and joy. The record is raw without being careless, political without being didactic, and experimental without losing its sense of fun.

What makes I Play My Bass Loud so compelling is its refusal to behave like a conventional solo debut. It carries decades of experience, but it does not settle into reverence or self-mythology. Instead, Birch makes a record that feels active, disruptive, and alive in the moment. A bass-forward, voice-forward, woman-forward album from an artist who helped change the language of independent music.