Album: "Awaken, My Love!"
Release date: Dec. 2
Label: Glassnote Entertainment Group
Rating: A
2016 has been quite the year for actor, producer, hip-hop artist and now-contemporary funk pioneer Donald Glover. Earlier in the year, he became a father. Over the summer, he created, advertised and produced a professional music festival, dubbed “Pharos,” in the deserts of California. And in early September, his neo-satirical comedy show “Atlanta” premiered on FX.
Glover, perhaps better known by his stage persona “Childish Gambino,” returned to the music scene recently to elaborate on his goals as an artist by creating an enriching and wholly innovative sound. This shift in stylistic measures was inspired by funk and R&B influences rather than his usual hip-hop origins.
Dec. 2 marked the release of his latest album, “Awaken, My Love!,” and the record has already proven to be worthy of album of the year consideration. The only explanation for this can be found in the work’s sheer strength. It evokes a certain stoicism, portrays a stark inner battle and makes its listener feel as though they are part of some Southern gothic odyssey. Their ties to this epic exist within its relatable themes of love, truth and the pursuit of happiness.
In order to fully appreciate the 11-song LP, one has to understand its context, where it sits in Gambino’s discography. It is his third studio album to date, and it fits nicely after an intermediate EP called “STN MTN/Kauai.” Before that, his last full album, called “Because the Internet,” established Gambino as a lyricist to be reckoned with. Its themes of anguish and a subtle rejection of a technologically evolving world sit nicely before those of “Awaken," which challenges the modern perceptions of R&B by building a retro, soulful platter of sound.
But the record is more than just a series of aesthetic evolutions. The lyrics of each of the songs have about them an honest vitality, as if iterations of old legend. The premise behind the album has been noted as a sequence of adages for Glover’s newborn son. Songs like “Me and Your Mama” and “Stand Tall” are evidence of this.
Other songs, like “Boogieman” and “Terrified,” utilize this last in a different way. They act as warnings of Glover’s own vices, and hope to dispel these from overtaking his son. Even so, Glover notes the inevitability of these lessons being lost on his growing son. This sort of woeful paternal instinct is best articulated in “Baby Boy,” perhaps the album’s strongest track lyrically. Themes of infidelity and a love lost for the boy’s mother combat themes of the overwhelming pride Glover has for the both of them.
“There was a time before you, / And there will be a time after you,” the track elaborates, “Though these bodies are not our own, / Walk tall, little one. / Walk tall.”
The album earns a solid A. Because in music, and all art, for that matter, progression and emotional journeys stand to mean the most. It is undeniable that this piece is a part of a journey, the third step in a line of them. And Gambino’s art has progressed, has inexorably grown into something more, something worthy of the utmost praise.