I usually start my reviews by mentioning an artist’s achievements and their recent discography, but with Childish Gambino it would be a disservice to talk about him and not bring up his other artistic achievements. Childish Gambino, known as Donald Glover outside of his music career, is a musician, rapper, writer, producer and actor. I could write a book on the amount of things he’s done in 2016, work that I’ve found very inspirational for me personally. For now though I'm going to focus on his music career.
If you know me personally, you know that I absolutely adore Childish Gambino as both a musical artist and his work in movies and television. He is one of my favorite artists of all time and I relate to his music a lot due to his themes of being a nerdy, black kid in the middle class home, and not being considered “black” by some of his peers because of his mild-mannered attitude. He was my favorite rapper in 2014 after he released his sophomore album "because the internet," and his EP "Kauai" was also one of my favorite projects of 2015.
After realizing how much more time he invested in his TV and movie career, people started to speculate whether Glover would continue making music. This scared the hell out of me, as I don't know what I would do if I wasn't graced with a Childish Gambino project every couple of years. It turns out I had nothing to worry about when he announced that he would be releasing another project in late 2016. I wasn't really sure what to expect from Gambino and this new project as his sound continues to change and evolve throughout the years and it keeps fans like myself on their toes in the best possible way.
Childish first released two singles off “Awaken My Love!”, “Me and Your Mama” and “Redbone.” It was clear that Gambino was trying out yet another new style. “Me and Your Mama” starts out with a long instrumental introduction, and leads into a loud, energetic rock-like chorus. I had mixed feelings about “Redbone” at first. Childish proceeded to use a high-pitched falsetto voice for the soft and soulful song. It was very unexpected, but after several more listens (and watching him perform it live which is ALWAYS a treat) it grew on me.
As for the rest of the album, I found it quite enjoyable. The singles were very indicative of the rest of the album, as Glover solely sang and did no rapping on the record. The album was soulful and funky, indicative of old school funk, soul and R&B from the 70s and 80s. The album focused heavily on live instrumentation. The production value was absolutely amazing, with Childish using amazing back-up vocals and giving solos to different instruments in different tracks. I’ve always been a fan of Childish and his focus on production value, as he takes pride in making his songs as sonically unique as possible. This is especially indicative in the track “The Night Me and Your Mama Met,” which had no lyrics and was entirely instrumental. It was as if Childish is telling his listeners “you don’t need any lyrics for this one; you get the idea of what happened.” I shouldn’t be surprised by his amazing production for this project, as he worked with his longtime collaborator producer Ludwig Göransson.
Childish doesn’t compromise production for lyrics, however, where he discusses his romantic relationships and dealing with the negative and positive effects of fame and success. He even provides an uplifting message to not only his listeners but to his newborn child with the end track “Stand Tall.” He sings for people to stay confident and believe in themselves when pursuing their passions in life.
My favorite track on the album (right now because it will probably change) is “Riot.” Appropriately named, this short, 2-minute track is definitely the busiest track on the album. It's psychedelic, high-energy, with awesome drum beats and mesmerizing guitar riffs. I also enjoy the harmonization of Gambino and his background vocalists throughout the song.
“Awaken My Love!” did have its weak spots, however, mainly due to Glover’s own vocal ability. While I was pleasantly surprised by his vocal range, Childish did reach for some of the styles of funk and soul that he was trying to put out. I think he didn’t deliver in certain songs, most notably in “California,” my least favorite song on the album. I recognized what he was trying to do vocally, but I don’t think he delivered either because he hasn’t refined singing in that style or because he just can’t pull it off. The track is by no means terrible, but it’s definitely skippable.
Childish Gambino is a force to be reckoned within the music community, and I continue to be baffled by the amount of people who don’t recognize his talent. Hopefully as Childish takes an even bigger step out of his usual genre, more people will realize what an amazing artist he is. “Awaken My Love!” can definitely be added to the long list of artistic achievements that he’s made in his career.
