Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover is back! After launching an awesome TV show, Atlanta (check it out, it’s great), Glover got back into Childish Gambino's shoes and gave us another excellent release, an album completely different from anything he’s done before. You won’t find hip-hop here, no witty lyrics describing his childhood (well, there are some traces of them), no classic “bitches and booze” verses, none of that can be found here. Awaken, My Love! is an album roaming through the funk woods, with an occasional stop at R&B lodge along with one comic-relief rest stop and an a couple of falls into auto-tune swamp.
Awaken, My Love! is (most of the time) an excellent funky release showing how Gambino evolved over the years. The opener, Me and Your Mama, is a great tune showing what the album is all about. Enchanting melodies, powerful vocals, a constant sense of discovery along with spot-on production make the song one of the best compositions from the album. Strange enough, the second single, Redbone, is another excellent representation of a new direction Glover is heading. Strong bass lines, soaring female vocals, catchy chorus, relatively relaxed rhythm, the song is masterfully executed.
Gambino goes full funky at times, especially on Have Some Love and Riot, the latter being probably the best song on the whole album. Funky, Jumpy, full-on positive, made with a dance floor in mind, Riot is a short fix of old-school funk coated with modern production, just forcing you to jump while walking, turning your day from another night in the rut into a sunny and happy time where everything is possible.
Of course, not everything is perfect. For instance, California, although being a mere comic relief, just feels totally out of place compared to the rest of the record. No matter, the song is fun and short enough to just forget about it as soon as it ends. Another problem happens when the ugly face of auto-tune appears from the mud. Just to be clear, it’s used on just a couple of songs, but since I just loathe it (and am very disappointed an artist like Gambino would ever use it, especially because the guy has a pretty powerful and enjoyable vocal capability), the few times it is used almost ruined the album for me. Stand Tall, one of the strongest songs on the album, both lyrically and musically, is ruined by Gambino’s fucked up autotuned vocals, making the song look like a damn joke. Good thing’s the song is the album’s closer, so you can skip it without any consequence, except if you actually love auto-tuned vocals.
Fortunately, Boogieman, Zombies (yes, there's some auto-tune on it, but it's used minimally), and Baby Boy give the album more awesomeness, making the auto-tune swamp pretty shallow and easy to traverse. Awaken, My Love! is an adamant release, experimenting with melodies of past, putting them together with the help of modern production. Everyone should definitely check it out.
