Bando Stone and the New World

Throughout Donald Glover’s idiosyncratic entertainment career, Childish Gambino has served as a vessel for his musical endeavours. The malleability of that moniker provided the right fit for his restless creative spirit, via the wry alt-rap adventures of <i>Camp</i> and <i>Because the Internet</i> and subsequently through the gripping P-Funk-meets-BLM expressions of <i>“Awaken, My Love!”</i>. Few, if any, artists of his generation could make television as profound and unique as the critically acclaimed <i>Atlanta</i> while also charting Billboard hits as diverse as “Redbone” and “This Is America”. But everything has its limit. “I'm not trying to be for anybody anymore,” Glover tells Apple Music's Zane Lowe. “It's too much work. I have to pick up the kids. I have to make chia seed pudding so they have something to eat in the morning.” So it’s with a certain sadness for his fans across mediums that Glover has declared <i>Bando Stone and the New World</i> the last Childish Gambino album. The ostensible soundtrack to a feature-length movie of the same name, the hour-long project includes snippets of dialogue that hint at the film’s apocalyptic subject matter. The fact that the soundtrack is preceding the actual film is part of Glover’s strategy: He wants listeners to work to figure out what they’re listening to. “The soundtrack forces the audience to participate in a way that I don't feel like most things force you to participate,” he says. “It forces you to have an imagination. I already see people being like, 'This is very cinematic, this must be the part that... This feels like a credit sequence.' A lot of stuff feels flat because it's not asking you to participate. Art used to be you had to participate on some level and have some sort of thought process on it. You can't just be like, 'Oh, this is mid.'” Even without the benefit of the full visuals, these 17 tracks make for a satisfying swan song that synthesises what came before with fresher ideas gleaned from the threshold of finality. From the industrial dancehall clatter of “H3@Rt$ W3re M3@Nt T0 F7¥” to the post-EDM edge of “A Place Where Love Goes”, he borrows from the zeitgeist in order to tell a story that’s all his own. That process makes <i>Bando Stone</i> a more rare and diverse effort, merging multiple styles into an oddly cohesive listening experience. “Lithonia” applies soaring guitar and dramatic keys to the single’s self-realisations, while the genuinely sentimental “Real Love” liberally mixes subtly squelching synths with breezy breaks. Elsewhere, he pops out and shows his haters what’s what with the punchline-laden bars of “Talk My Shit”, keeping that same energy on the power-pop bop “Running Around”. To Glover, this stylistic eclecticism is faithful to how he thinks people experience their lives. “Depending on what you want or where you want to go, you'll listen to Sade or you'll listen to Nine Inch Nails,” he says. “They offer something, and I feel like with more access to things, you can offer a more holistic view of life or just what we're all going through.” Glover’s personal life understandably bleeds into the mix, marked most poignantly by the presence of his son Legend on the tender duet “Can You Feel Me”. That meaningful guest appearance exists alongside collaborations with other noteworthy guests culled largely from the hip-hop and R&B world, such as Flo Milli, Fousheé and Yeat, the latter of whom Glover says he was “super impressed with”. With the help of Amaarae and Jorja Smith, he makes a meaningful case for love on the standout cut “In the Night”. Ultimately, Glover believes he’s wrapped up this part of his life on his own terms, even if there’s some ambiguity. “I remember seeing the ending of <i>The Sopranos</i> and being like, ‘I feel very content.’ And I know some people didn't feel that way, but I remember watching it. It's like, ‘Man, I have to make something that makes people okay with an ending like that.’”