Bryan Baste | Contributing Writer
Bringing a bombastic ending, Childish Gambino bangs out his final album.
Donald Glover is a multi-talented individual, with numerous TV shows like Atlanta, and Community under his belt, as well as movies like Guava Island and the film this album accompanies with the same name: “Bando Stone & The New World”.
This album is an undertaking since Gambino not only tackles styles and genres that he has experimented with before, but also brings even more innovation into the mix with this record for better or for worse.
However, despite the undertaking I feel like this is a great album with huge flaws, the highs are really high but the lows are intensely low with odd lyric and production choices
This album wants to have so many different genres like pop punk, rock, folk exotica, and hip-hop and still complement the movie that he is making; it honestly feels like more of a mess than his previous works at times.
Like the very first track, “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥” is an industrial hip-hop song similar to a track on “Yeezus” by Kanye West with huge pummeling 808s and kick drums that make you feel constantly berated with sound.
And then, the following track “Lithonia” is a pop-rock ballad that has sprawling distorted guitars and pretty clean production which was a total switch-up from the last song.
The whole album is like this, which is fine; I like both tracks and I like most of the album, but the album suffers from a lot of songs being way worse than others. With all the genres and styles being different from song to song becomes messy.
The moment I really noticed this with the album is the difference between “Steps Beach” and “Talk My Shit ft. Amaarae & Flo Milli”
“Steps Beach” is my favorite song from the album. It has a nice acoustic guitar loop throughout the song that makes me feel like I’m lounging by the ocean.
The chorus has nice synth tones going on in the background which is a nice touch and adds some depth to the song making it dreamy.
While “Talk My Shit ft. Amaarae & Flo Milli” is one of the worst tracks: a generic trap song that sounds kinda out of place with the rest of the album since even the other hip-hop-oriented tracks don’t sound as generic.
The lyrics are also really cringe: “When it come to tools, I’m MacGyver.”
Also, Amaarae’s voice is just a poor man’s Playboi Carti– which means it sounds like garbage. However, I did think this track was hilarious to listen to, so it was easily my favorite worst track on the album.
Don’t get me started on “Can You Feel Me ft. Legend,” an inherently cute track between Gambino and his son. But it sounds like trash with both of their vocals drenched in auto-tune.
The lyrics throughout this album also feel very ‘first-draft’ and almost like they were freestyled.
“Running Around ft. Fousheé” has lyrics like “Yeah, it’s the weekend, and I’m outta my mind”,
“Yeah, I was sleepin’, but I ran out of time”, “I got my haircut, and I’m ready to go”.
It simulates a pop punk song that Machine Gun Kelly would regurgitate out and sounds like a bad rendition of The Anthem by Good Charlotte (I’m being serious, listen to both songs it’s kinda scary).
I think most of the album, however, has something to say with the songs I like including Happy Survival ft. Khruangbin. Its tropical sounds and clean guitar tone gives this instrumental track another beach vibe similar to previous songs.
And “Yoshinoya”, which is a Drake diss that has some killer lines like “Fuck with my kids, you fuck with your life”, “You fuckin’ these hoes, I’m fuckin’ my wife”.
His flow and cadence throughout is very similar to a lot of Drake songs which was a nice touch.
Overall, despite the album’s messiness, constant change of tone, genre, and theme, and some songs being laughably bad I still think this is a great album and worth your time if you are a fan of Donald Glover.
6/10
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