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Donald Glover: A Man For All Occasions
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 10th February 2017 |
They say if you want a job done, ask a busy person to do it.
Childish Gambino, (Donald Glover) actor, writer, producer, director, comedian, rapper, singer songwriter, and you could say a man with more fingers than pies. Many Glover fans may have feared that his ever-growing repertoire may draw a shadow over his future musical manifestations that we have come to love. How wrong we were...
Late 2016 saw the release of Glovers anticipated third studio album Awaken my love. If you were expecting and wanting another Gambino rap album then I’m afraid to say this may not be the album for you. Instead what we get is a psychedelic funk/soul/rock album that is almost a tribute to a sound that was so popular in the early 70’s.
Gambino has really absorbed the sound of acts such as Funkadelic-Parliament, Sly and the Family Stone and Bootsy Collins for this LP.
The regular, robust hip-hop sound on show previously in Glovers work takes a comfortable back seat during the duration of this album. In its place arrives a soul driven and messed-up funk, forty-eight minutes long, made apparent from the first track Me and Your Mama. With Gambino cultivating a deep, epic piece, mixed tastefully of dreamlike, mesmeric electronic sounds and haunting lyrics.
Then there’s Have Some Love and Boogieman, although they’re obvious odes to Funkadelics Can You Get To That and Hit it and Quit it, they’re nicely done and are some of the most playful tracks on this album.
Terrified sounds exactly like it should, it’s a moody track that features some stunning background female vocals. The obvious radio hit here is Redbone, though it’s probably the one song on this album you could call mainstream it’s wonderfully done and has Gambino at his best vocally with his sultry, falsetto tones.
While California- a bright and breezy calypso with a typical Gambino twist, perfectly captures the effervescent, stimulating spirit that runs freely through the heart of this album. But The album is far from perfect.The song California is a waste, the song has Gambino, fit with autotune going over a sparse but tropical instrumental in what can only be described as a parody of the mumble rap. So commonly found in Hip-Hop today. It’s a frustrating listen. As is Gambino making up for his lack of range by replacing it with cartoonish voices over different songs.
Sometimes it works but when it doesn’t it becomes quickly grating. The Night Me and Your Mama Met is a needless instrumental and had it been accompanied by some vocals it could’ve been a stand out.
