a bittersweet send-off to a musical innovator

“Are we gonna die?” – it’s a stark query to start out with, however ‘Bando Stone and The New World’ is a dying of kinds. On his fifth and closing musical enterprise as Infantile Gambino, the iconoclast Donald Glover bids farewell to the once-wandering persona he created 19 years in the past after not discovering music “fulfilling”.

Gambino has explored numerous musical types all through his profession. His early albums ‘Camp’ (2011) and ‘As a result of The Web’ (2013) launched him as an eccentric backpack rapper, whereas ‘Awaken, My Love!’ (2016) and ‘Atavista’ (2024) – the expanded model of his 2020 self-leaked undertaking ‘3.15.20’ – showcase his evolution right into a world-building experimentalist.

The album – which may also double because the soundtrack to Glover’s upcoming dystopian survival film of the identical identify – calls again to many of those factors from his previous work. It’s stuffed with cinematic interludes that recall to mind ‘As a result of The Web’, whereas ‘Survive’ appears like a radio-worthy leftover from ‘Atavista’ and ‘Steps Seaside’ has the identical dreaminess as his ‘Kauai’ mixtape.

Even on ‘Yoshinoya’, the disruptor brings us again to the 2010s by rapping over an evocative experimental beat harking back to Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. At first, Gambino allegedly weapons for Drake, telling the 6God to “keep the place you at, alleged to, boy” in his signature laid-back circulate earlier than issuing a “code purple for outdated heads who by no means preferred my quick shorts and PRO-Keds”. Even in his closing kind, Gambino continues to be hyper-aware of the critics and proudly sticks his center finger up at them, simply as he did again in his 2011 debut single ‘Bonfire’.

Though you may draw parallels to the opposite variations of Infantile Gambino, ‘Bando Stone…’ is certainly not a nostalgic feat. In addition to trying again, the star additionally strikes ahead. Lyrically, the once-quirky oddball has matured into a person who touches on themes reminiscent of fatherhood, love, religion and extra, whereas his sonic repertoire will get a recent enlargement, too.

‘Lithonia’ sees him attempt his hand at a mini rock opera, injecting it with an identical grungy angst as Radiohead’s seminal 1993 hit ‘Creep’. ‘Received To Be’ is drastically completely different, fooling us into believing it’ll take the type of a melodic home anthem earlier than ear-shattering synths blare by way of your audio system throughout this frenetic, Prodigy-sampling Atlanta membership tribute. Glover even reverts to his outdated craving methods on ‘Actual Love’ – a feel-good pick-me-up the place he sings about desirous to “be somebody you can rely on” and “be every part that you just wished [him] to be” in a breathy greater register that conveys an enthralling innocence.

With the assistance of Afro-fusion celebrity Amaarae, R&B pioneer Jorja Smith, assured spitter Flo Milli and even his son Legend on his final musical hurrah, Glover has made a report as otherworldly as his different outings. But, ‘Bando Stone and The New World’ stumbles barely – the place its sonic selection is thrilling, it lacks a transparent sense of cohesion or theme in comparison with his earlier work – making it a bittersweet farewell to the legend of Infantile Gambino.

Particulars

• File label: RCA Information
• Launch date: July 19, 2024