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I think that opened up a lot of new doors for us.” “But it was also taking a step away from computers and to have the whole recording process filled with more air and live performances. “The whole album started out with me, Donald and a couple musicians just being in the studio together for a week and basically just experimenting, Donald just kind of being open to anything,” Goransson says.

Hot Off 'Atlanta,' Donald Glover Prepares for 'Star Wars' & Childish Gambino's Funkadelic-Inspired…
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The song is an unmistakable nod to George Clinton‘s seminal psych-funk collective - particularly Funkadelic’s early 1969-1975 output, before Parliament‘s party-funk horns and swirling Moogs replaced gritty guitars as the main driver of the groove - and steers home an influence that pops up again and again all over the album. What Goransson sees as a natural evolution - one that started with Glover expanding beyond just rapping on 2013’s Because the Internet, and continued with more sung vocals on 2014’s Kauai - caught most people by surprise when “Me and Your Mama” was released as Awaken‘s first single in November.

“There are small little ingredients and notes that are very well-thought-out, arrangement-wise, and there’s a lot of ear candy in there happening… I feel like it’s kind of the natural evolution of sound.”
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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.“We actually built a drum room in Donald’s house just to get the exact drum sound we wanted it took a couple weeks to build,” says producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ludwig Goransson, who co-wrote and and co-produced the entirety of Awaken, My Love! and has worked with Glover for nearly a decade. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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Like the cosmic soul it emulates, the atmosphere is lush, full of period ambiance worthy of a high-end television set. The album’s production is majestic, aiming squarely for the cosmos depicted on its striking cover artwork.
