Childish Gambino - "Awaken, My Love!": Rated

“AWAKEN, MY LOVE!” (2016): 9.1/10

I’m not about to tell you anything you didn’t already know about Donald Glover: he’s a genius. This album is incredibly stylistic and he experiments deeply with guitar work, bass lines and most importantly, vocals. 

I’m specifically talking about Zombies here. He applies himself excellently on this song, demonstrating to us that your voice truly is an instrument in its own right. The guitar was great not only on Me And Your Mama but also on The Night Me And Your Mama Met. Bass was great throughout obviously, but most notably on Redbone and on Terrified. The gospel singing at the end of Baby Boy gave me chills. I love the ad libs on this album too, and the organic percussion on top of the actual drums. Brilliant stuff. 

I definitely agreed with the mainstream here. I think Redbone and Me And Your Mama are excellent songs and I’m not gonna feel bad about rating them as masterpieces. They’re just too good. 

In the grand fashion of the rest of his discography, Childish Gambino is extremely subversive in his musical style. One minute you’re in one song, then before you even blink you’re in a completely different one. This is a funk album, a jazz album, an experimental rock album, call it whatever you want, but submissive it is not.

I thought it was brilliant.