By now, the world knows who Donald Glover is. From Community to the sharp and universally beloved Atlanta to his forthcoming Star Wars role, he’s carved out his persona; he’s likable, sensitive, and observant, the self-aware everyman. But Childish Gambino has always been harder to pin down. Since emerging with throwaway mixtapes under that alias, Glover has released two highly self-reflexive rap full-lengths, a Southern rap EP and a straight pop EP, and hosted a mysterious, cell phone-free festival. The unifying thread connecting all of this has sometimes been hard to spot. His recently released “Awaken, My Love!” is his hardest left turn yet, ditching rap wholesale in favor of funk worship, and the result is his most enjoyable project to date. In paying homage to heroes, he even hits upon some of the genuine emotional connection that has often been missing from his music.
The album’s production is majestic, aiming squarely for the cosmos depicted on its striking cover artwork. Like the cosmic soul it emulates, the atmosphere is lush, full of period ambiance worthy of a high-end television set. The album’s first track and lead single, “Me and Your Mama,” is a satisfying slow burn that shows off Glover’s impressive falsetto. 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 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. 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.
Too much of the rest, though, simply nods to sentiment without producing any. 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. 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. “California,” a cringey tropical parody complete with fake patois, sticks out for the wrong reasons. 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.
Donald Glover’s greatest talents remain his tragicomic touch as a screenwriter and his ease with performance. 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. 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. But zoom in, and it didn’t really click. Rarely did he make a song about anything, and those zingers were plain obnoxious. (“Fandango my mandingo, we should do a movie” from a 2012 track with Danny Brown, for example.)
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. There are times, however, when that nodding feels more like mimicry than anything else. 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.
