![]() ![]() Maybe he’ll figure out how to smuggle Donald Glover’s heart into Childish Gambino’s brain eventually, but if he hasn’t figured out what he wants out of Childish Gambino yet, it’s increasingly rewarding watching him try. There are times, however, when that nodding feels more like mimicry than anything else. That same on-paper ability is what makes “Awaken, My Love!” a well-executed project: He has clearly absorbed a great deal of musical history, as the album nods to Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, Rick James, Prince, and more. (“Fandango my mandingo, we should do a movie” from a 2012 track with Danny Brown, for example.) Rarely did he make a song about anything, and those zingers were plain obnoxious. While these blurred lines make this album a little hard to follow, Awaken, My Love proves his versatility as a rapper turning over a new leaf. As a rapper, he almost sounded the part: Take a step back, and there he was, rapping fast, switching up flows, delivering (too many) punchlines. Childish Gambino gets definite props for pushing the envelope and refusing to operate within any genre confinements on this refreshing 49-minute trip through the funkadelic 1970s. He’s skilled enough to figure out how to excel at something, and, for the most part, look like he knows what he’s doing. Colourful, brilliantly messy, and a fully committed hodge-podge of psych and spacecake croons, ‘Awaken, My Love’ is unlikely to shed further light on exactly what Childish Gambino is at heart, but by now, Glover’s erratic approach is surely part of his central appeal. It sounds like “Kokomo” for the “ Hotline Bling” era, or maybe Ween covering Sublime’s “Caress Me Down,” and its inclusion is entirely baffling, considering the sonic cohesion of the rest of the project.ĭonald Glover’s greatest talents remain his tragicomic touch as a screenwriter and his ease with performance. “California,” a cringey tropical parody complete with fake patois, sticks out for the wrong reasons. There are also a few indistinguishable tracks that feel like funk retreads “Have Some Love” sounds uncomfortably close to “ Can You Get to That” from Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain. On “Have Some Love,” he limply advises the audience to “really love one another.” The song called “Riot” isn’t exactly riotous: He screams a little, but only for the sake of fulfilling a pre-ordained funk yelp quota-nothing in the song seems to have moved him to shrieking. Too much of the rest, though, simply nods to sentiment without producing any. ![]() It’s a love song, which has always been Glover’s forte, whether on Because the Internet’s “ 3005,” “ Telegraph Ave,” or Camp’s “ L.E.S.” The same goes for the open-hearted “Baby Boy,” possibly inspired by the birth of his son. These songs dig into something that feels unique to Glover’s heart, not just his record collection. The tracks are embellished with intricate details throughout, like the delicate xylophone on “Terrified.” “ Redbone” builds from a slow jam into a peak of futuristic guitar and forceful staccato piano chords. Its imagery (“This is the end of us/Sleeping with the moon and the stars”) might be vapid, but the intensity of Glover’s singing compensates, as does the ripping electric guitar. The album’s first track and lead single, “Me and Your Mama,” is a satisfying slow burn that shows off Glover’s impressive falsetto. Like the cosmic soul it emulates, the atmosphere is lush, full of period ambiance worthy of a high-end television set. Still, it’s a minor gripe when there’s so much here to enjoy.The album’s production is majestic, aiming squarely for the cosmos depicted on its striking cover artwork. Only the limitations of his voice occasionally let him down – he doesn’t quite have the range to nail Awaken’s more ostentatious vocal lines. Glover has a keen ear for genre idiosyncrasies and Awaken, My Love is full of tiny rewarding details: the pinched surf guitar of California the squalling organ blasts of the Parliament-Funkadelic-ish Riot. Yet any sense that his latest evolution is merely an affectation is disabused by opener Me and Your Mama, an opus that builds from hushed gospel to howling freakout. ![]() and so much static noises on this record, I hoped it would fade away atleast but it didn't. In his rap incarnation, Glover was sometimes mocked for being inauthentic – a Hollywood type trying a rap career on for size. referencing Awaken, My Love ( LP, Album, Reissue, Blue 'Baby Boy' ) GLS-0221-01WM Disappointing pressing, I thought there would be a lot of bass but there just isn't. For his follow-up, though, Glover decided to run a mile from the genre: instead, Awaken, My Love is a prog-tinged funk opus situated somewhere between Sly and the Family Stone and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Indeed, his previous album under that name, Because the Internet, did just that. Given that he’s the creator/star of a TV comedy – the brilliant Atlanta – that’s embedded in the world of hip-hop, you’d be forgiven for expecting Donald Glover to cover similar territory with his musical alter ego Childish Gambino.
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