FROM THE ARCHIVE: Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love! (REVIEW)




Childish Gambino - musical persona of the swiss army knife of talent Donald Glover – has long been an artist who I have sceptically appreciated as an extremely talented rapper and singer. His previous releases including Because the Internet and STN MTN / Kauai feature an impressive combination of stellar production and wit-filled, memorable flows ranging in style from straight up modern hip hop and rap tracks to full on infectious pop songs; however, despite Gambino’s undisputed talent, the rapper has never really released anything that has cemented him as unique or progressive in the genre. 

His new release, “Awaken, My Love!” (speculated to be dedicated to his new born child), sees Gambino adopt a new style entirely, marking the artist’s departure from hip hop with a psychedelic blend of soul, funk and R&B. As opposed to other hip hop artists who have adopted elements this of funk in modern times (such as Kendrick Lamar on “To Pimp a Butterfly” and Anderson .Paak on “Malibu”), Gambino adopts a more straight up mimicking of the genre, utilizing his singing voice while completely abandoning rapping. As one would expect from a classic 70s funk/soul record, the instrumentation across the album features thick, funky sounding bass guitars, punchy and crisp drums accompanied by smooth synths and the occasional electric guitar lead. Both the instrumentation and production on the album are without fault, setting up an immaculate flow of believable and catchy sounding funk tracks that will stick in your head for hours. The opening track “Me and Your Mama” builds with dreamy synths, eventually crashing into a cascade of funk, with crunchy drums and guitar riffs and Gambino’s vocals are almost in a state of pleading as he begs the subject to “Let me into your heart”. Tracks like Boogieman are outstanding; with Gambino adopting an odd but infectious vocal style to highlight racial fear in the US around African Americans, adopting a particularly critical focus towards the police force: “With a gun in your hand / I’m the boogieman / I’m gonna come and get you”. As well as upbeat tracks such as Riot and Have Some Love, Gambino shows he can also effectively adopt a change of pace with more relaxed tracks such as Redbone, a personal favourite which oozes a sexy and soulful atmosphere inspired by the late pioneer of the genre Prince. The latter half of the album switches moods, with a more direct focus on Gambino addressing his new born child, particularly on the tracks “Baby Boy” and “Stand Tall”.

The album isn’t without its flaws, however, which mainly stem from Childish Gambino himself. Gambino’s use of a range of emotion and pitch in his vocal style enlightens tracks at best – such as on tracks like Zombies, which adds to the creepy and atmospheric nature of the track as it describes people who leech of one’s success and energy. Gambino even employs some modern techniques, such as auto tune, to compliment his vocal style tastefully throughout the record. At worst, however, Gambino’s vocals can sound strained and almost comical, like in the track “California” - by far the worst track on the album - where his vocal delivery is almost impossible to listen to comfortably and take seriously. On other cuts, Gambino’s voice just isn’t strong enough to compliment the instrumentation which leaves the listener feeling that the track demands more of the singer; this is definitely apparent on tracks like “Baby Boy”. 

Despite the weakness in Childish Gambino’s vocal performance at points across the album, this does not mean he does not fit this style and it is a delivery I would love to see him execute in further releases. Gambino has carved a new musical direction for himself on “Awaken, My Love!” that I personally believe outshines both other artists attempting the genre in modern times and his previous work as a rapper.


Also published in Quench Magazine


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