Awaken, My Love!
On the face of it, Donald Glover’s *“Awaken, My Love!”* is a museum-quality rip of early-’70s funk and soul: the faded vocals, the fuzzed-out guitars, the collective sense of chaos and exuberance. But it’s also more than that. Glover said he’d started with childhood memories of his parents playing Funkadelic and The Isley Brothers on the stereo: specific sounds and songs, but more importantly, a general feeling—one that Glover wasn’t quite old enough to grasp. Like a funhouse mirror, he stretches his influences into weird shapes: The freak-outs are exaggerated to the point of comedy (“Me and Your Mama”) and the ballads romantic to the point of creepy (“Terrified”). It makes for a tonal fluidity that also marks his work on the television show *Atlanta*, which he created. Coming from an artist known for taut wordplay and manically constructed similes, the broad strokes of *Awaken* are a shift: You’ll think eventually, but mood comes first. And in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests that followed the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and so many more, Glover’s choice to echo a period in Black music when artists took on an explicitly revolutionary cast is a canny complement to albums like Kendrick Lamar’s *To Pimp a Butterfly* and Solange Knowles’ *A Seat at the Table*, both of which explored Black identity with new urgency. The result is an experiment in time travel: Through sounds of the past, he captures the tensions of the present.
On Donald Glover’s latest project as Childish Gambino, he ditches rap for lovingly produced funk worship, resulting in his most enjoyable project yet.
It is hard to say whether it was always a game of chess, but if it were, Childish Gambino, a.k.a. Donald Glover, had the game plan all along. How does one go from being known as a comedian, a writer on 30 Rock, and an actor on Community to a multifaceted star in the truest sense? Take a hiatus from comedy to focus on…
Childish Gambino mixes equal parts funk and soul to make an psych album about a revolution of the heart
Multi-talented Donald Glover ditches rap for a psychedelic soul stew on third album
Donald Glover is an artist who often pushes himself into new mediums and now new styles of music, as evidenced by "Awaken My Love!".
Discover "Awaken, My Love!" by Childish Gambino released in 2016. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
Sometimes, history repeating itself is a good thing. In a complete departure from his previous work, Childish Gambino conjures '70s psychede...
Even though Donald Glover's been in the spotlight for nearly a decade now, trespassing across careers in comedy, writing, and music, he is only now really discovering his voice.
Childish Gambino AKA Donald Glover sounds like a man re-born on his latest effort ‘Awaken, My Love!’. Firstly, he doesn’t rap. Instead
The album, Donald Glover’s third release as Childish Gambino, finds the musician confusing his idols for muses.
Awake, My Love! by Childish Gambino album review by Matthew Wardell. The LP is now out via Glassnote Records. Childish Gambino, plays, 1/1 in Sydney, AUS.
Given that he’s the creator/star of a TV comedy – the brilliant Atlanta – that’s embedded in the world of hip-hop, you’d be forgiven for expecting Donald Glover to cover similar territory with his musical alter ego Childish Gambino.
Glover seems content to do entertaining impressions of the giants who came before him, rather than continue forging his own sonic path.
Artist: Childish GambinoGenre: Hip-Hop & RapLabel: GlassnoteIt would be interesting to know what Paper Boi would make of Awaken, My Love!