Mike's Picks #9
Childish Gambino - Awaken, My Love
Admission time; I've never been much of a believer in Childish Gambino. Nothing
against the man behind the project, I've never had a problem with Donald
Glover as an actor, comedian, or any of the other forms of
entertainment that he has dabbled in, but musically I was always left
wanting. He's obviously talented, his freestyles are really tight, but
his studio tracks were never memorable to me. Poppy, but lacking
hooks, and fairly whiny. I figured a few here and there tweaks to his style were all that
he needed to push his brand of off-beat hip-hop to be something
approaching special. Instead,
we get Awaken, My Love, one of the most surprising big albums of the
year. Not content with light tweaking, the album sounds nothing like
his previous output. There were subtle flashes of R&B and soul on
previous releases, but here those influences are front and center. If
you played this record for die hard Childish Gambino fans who didn't
know it was his new album, they probably would have no idea who they
were listening to. This is the Childish Gambino album for non-Childish
Gambino fans...like myself.
To
eliminate the elephant in the room, this album takes a lot of influence
from Funkadelic's 1971 funk classic Maggot Brain. The covers of each
record are similar. The break down in the first track (and later the
reprise of said track) share sonic similarities to "Maggot Brain", the second
song on Awaken... sounds like the second song on Maggot Brain, and the same
could be said of the third tracks on both. It could be said that
Donald Glover is playing a role here; an actor playing out his
Funkadelic cosplay fantasy. It could also be said that none of that
really matters when the songs are as catchy and funky as they are here. Glover shows that he can play the role of 70s funk soul master
better than he plays the role of MC.
As
the album progresses, the Funkadelic worship begins to fade, giving way
to a tighter, more concise style of R&B. This starts with the
single "Redbone", easily the best song on the album and one of the
better songs released by anyone all year. It has all the sexual tension
and fire of a prime Prince ballad, from the falsetto to the slap bass
and space synths. This was the song where I realized
how much of an artistic step up this was from Childish Gambino's previous
material. It's the type of instantly catchy, sultry and soulful music
that will keep him relevant as long as he can keep it up. This
continues on songs like "Baby Boy" and "Stand Tall", which tackle the
central theme of the record, fatherhood.
Key Lyric:
Too late
You wanna make it right, but now it's too late
My peanut butter chocolate cake with Kool-Aid
I'm trying not to waste my time
Labels: Books Music & More, Childish Gambino, Mike's Picks, Music
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