Childish Gambino - ‘Bando Stone and The New World’
17th August 2024
Donald Glover sure releases a lot of albums for a retired musician. In fact, we’ve had three whole LPs after Glover promised to ‘see us for the last Gambino album’. Admittedly, two of these were the same album, released in different forms. However, ‘Bando Stone and The New World’ is promised to be the final word from Donald Glover as his Wu Tang name-generator moniker ‘Childish Gambino’. For like, real this time.
What we get is not some huge artistic statement, or anything particularly poignant, but a movie soundtrack to a film that has not even been released yet. As such, we’re potentially missing the context in which Glover wants us to experience the album. Anyway, we’re going to have to
Always rather inconsistent, sometimes irreverent, Glover seems far less attached to the Childish Gambino project than we are. His musical identity has always been quite hard to pin down, with his output bouncing around from genre to genre. Not that any artist should be restricted to one genre, but Glover’s discography reads less like musical evolution, more rapid mutation. A lovesick backpack rapper one minute, Kanye clone the next, then chill R&B master to funkadelic retro futurist …
This is conspicuously audible on ‘Bando Stone’: To open, we get a crushing, Yeezus-style kaleidoscope of rap, techno and R&B madness courtesy of ‘H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥’. After this wild opener, we transition into ‘Lithonia’, which opens with atmospheric organ and melancholy vocals. The song quickly evolves by the chorus into an overwrought rock anthem, with the enjoyably flippant refrain. The track is very out of character for Glover, but really what is his character? ‘Nobody gives a fuck!’ It really sticks out like a sore thumb alongside the other material, but it’s such a fun track (with a positively … eye-popping video) that it really doesn’t matter.
‘Survive’ is a catchy psychedelic R&B jam, reminiscent of some of Glover’s best moments off of the heavily underrated Kauai, with sultry saxophones and a propulsive beat. ‘Steps Beach’ is an intimate, sensual acoustic number that again harkens back to the tropical, R&B canvas painted on the ‘Kauai’ EP. ‘Talk My Shit’ is a braggadocious trap banger, with some great bars from Flo Milli, but it is ruined by a high-pitched, out-of-tune and hella jarring Amaarae feature, who which was definitely a mistake. ‘Got To Be’ is another fun & obnoxious techno/rap explosion, sitting side-by-side with sultry late-night R&B tracks like ‘In The Night’ and ‘No Excuses’.
‘Yoshinoya’ shows Glover again returning to his vitriolic ‘Because The Internet’ style bars, while we get dark and moody atmospheres on ‘Cruisin’ and ‘We Are God’, alongside the radio-friendly pop rock of ‘Dadvocate’. The album closes on sweaty dance rap banger ‘A Place Where Love Goes’, which feels a little anti-climactic after such a rollercoaster ride.
Some of the sweeter moments really make you wistful for the more focused visions of Kauai or Awaken My Love, but some of the deeper cuts do reveal some really interesting new direction for the Gambino sound, with moody synths and electronically-styled chopped vocals. It will be interesting tos ee how all this will fit into a movie that we as yet know very little about, teased across the album with snippets of dialogue. And while we can hope that Glover might return to give us another classic, this messy but enjoyable record might have to satisfy us. For now.