Awaken, My Love!

A huge shift from Donald Glover's previous work, but not unexpected (given the singles he has released for the album), and by no means a bad addition to his discography.

It's understandable for many to be left wanting the slick verses and tongue in cheek humorous tone of previous albums, but I would encourage Glover fans to give it a chance and take this in as a unique chapter of a very diversely talented auteur-esque talent. Thus far in his career, we've seen Glover excel as both a writer, actor (in various genres), comedian, and musician (again in various genres). What this albums lacks in the initial hookiness of songs like "3005" or "Fire Fly", it makes up for in mood and cohesiveness as a finely crafted piece of art. While more funkadelic, this album seems much more closely related to his "Kauai" EP than any of his full length albums, and that's not a bad thing.

Favorite track so far is "California" by a long shot, but have not found a song on here that I dislike yet. Excited to continue to explore these tracks, and eager to see where he evolves from here.

I should note right off the bat that I became a Childish Gambino fan with Because The Internet and only recently picked up Camp so I don't have any experience with his demos or other non-mainstream material. I'm also not a big hip hop fan but Gambino's musical diversity, the highs and lows his songs flow between, are the kinds of musical experiences I love. I came into this album with high expectations and completely blind to what the style would be.

Me and Your Mama opens with a mixture of classic soul, a 70s rock ballad, and prog. Gambino has always been liberal with his influences and often pulls from outside the usual hip hop bag of tricks but I was still surprised at how different this was from anything I've heard from him before. I'm not overly familiar with soul as a genre outside of my occasional spins of The Stylistics so right off the bat Awaken, My Love! is a harder sell than his first two were for me.

The album continues on with a similar sound until Zombies jumps in with a bit more of a campy horror direction but not enough that the song breaks up the flow of the album any. There is a general synth influence throughout the entire album the music switches from funky classic rock sounds to modern synth-pop quite frequently. Notes generally have a spacey, ethereal vibe that sound BIG and act as a background sonicscape that leads you through the experience.

Redbone is the first song that will sound a bit more familiar to styles Gambino has done in the past but his vocal delivery is in such a high falsetto that I had no idea it was him singing until I looked into a few blurbs about the song itself. I can understand why it was released as a preview track since it is one of the most radio friendly tracks on a generally abstract mainstream unfriendly album. However I have no doubt that Gambino's artistry beyond the music will still find a way to get people who otherwise would never check out a style like this to eat it up.

The high points of the album (Me and Your Mama, Redbone, Terrified, and Stand Tall among others) will certainly justify numerous replays but there are a few low points. California is thankfully short but is a song that borders on tedious to listen to. There are also moments where I found myself zoning out a bit which is very abnormal for me during a Gambino release. Even with these few minor gripes I can't deny there are a ton of cool moments that make nearly every track worth checking out and fans of artists like Prince will probably find a lot to love about Awaken, My Love!. Unfortunately I can already tell this is the album I'm least likely to listen to of his three LP releases so far.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be spinning this album a lot to pick out all the little nuances and I'm sure I'll check out any sort of videos he puts out to support the album to get even more context about the storyline but this is definitely an album that won't be for everyone. I suppose that could have been said about Because The Internet and, for me, that is one of my favorite albums of all time. It is very possible that if Awaken, My Love! is in a style you already enjoy then it may well be your favorite release of his and I'm going to stay open minded to see if it grows on me with time. I definitely commend Gambino for taking such a huge risk and I have no doubt it will pay off.

I can see long time Gambino fans not feeling this. If you weren't already interested in the genre before hand then you probably won't like it. CG's music is always out of the usual which is the reason I enjoy him more then other artist and Awaken, my Love doesn't disappoint. Its the kind of music that makes you want to lay back and get lost to.

A great mixture of funk and soul.. Its a truly pleasing sound to the ears. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. The more you listen to it the more you fall in love.

If your not a fan of George clinton or a funkateer, dont buy this album. If you are this is a must buy.
Also as usual, the sound quality of his CD is top notch.