On Donald Glover’s latest project as Childish Gambino, he ditches rap for lovingly produced funk worship, resulting in his most enjoyable project yet.

By now, the world knows who Donald Glover is. From “Community” to the sharp and universally beloved “Atlanta” to his forthcoming Star Wars role, he’s carved out his persona; he’s likable, sensitive, and observant, the self-aware everyman. But Childish Gambino has always been harder to pin down. Since emerging with throwaway mixtapes under that alias, Glover has released two highly self-reflexive rap full-lengths, a Southern rap EP and a straight pop EP, and hosted a mysterious, cell phone-free festival. The unifying thread connecting all of this has sometimes been hard to spot. His recently released “Awaken, My Love!” is his hardest left turn yet, ditching rap wholesale in favor of funk worship, and the result is his most enjoyable project to date. In paying homage to heroes, he even hits upon some of the genuine emotional connection that has often been missing from his music.

The album’s production is majestic, aiming squarely for the cosmos depicted on its striking cover artwork. Like the cosmic soul it emulates, the atmosphere is lush, full of period ambiance worthy of a high-end television set. The album’s first track and lead single, “Me and Your Mama,” is a satisfying slow burn that shows off Glover’s impressive falsetto. Its imagery (“This is the end of us/Sleeping with the moon and the stars”) might be vapid, but the intensity of Glover’s singing compensates, as does the ripping electric guitar.

The tracks are embellished with intricate details throughout, like the delicate xylophone on “Terrified.” “Redbone” builds from a slow jam into a peak of futuristic guitar and forceful staccato piano chords. It’s a love song, which has always been Glover’s forte, whether on Because the Internet’s “3005,” “Telegraph Ave,” or Camp’s “L.E.S.” The same goes for the open-hearted “Baby Boy,” possibly inspired by the birth of his son. These songs dig into something that feels unique to Glover’s heart, not just his record collection.

Too much of the rest, though, simply nods to sentiment without producing any. On “Have Some Love,” he limply advises the audience to “really love one another.” The song called “Riot” isn’t exactly riotous: He screams a little, but only for the sake of fulfilling a pre-ordained funk yelp quota—nothing in the song seems to have moved him to shrieking. There are also a few indistinguishable tracks that feel like funk retreads; “Have Some Love” sounds uncomfortably close to “Can You Get to That” from Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain. “California,” a cringey tropical parody complete with fake patois, sticks out for the wrong reasons. It sounds like “Kokomo” for the “Hotline Bling” era, or maybe Ween covering Sublime’s “Caress Me Down,” and its inclusion is entirely baffling, considering the sonic cohesion of the rest of the project.

Donald Glover’s greatest talents remain his tragicomic touch as a screenwriter and his ease with performance. He’s skilled enough to figure out how to excel at something, and, for the most part, look like he knows what he’s doing. As a rapper, he almost sounded the part: Take a step back, and there he was, rapping fast, switching up flows, delivering (too many) punchlines. But zoom in, and it didn’t really click. Rarely did he make a song about anything, and those zingers were plain obnoxious. (“Fandango my mandingo, we should do a movie” from a 2012 track with Danny Brown, for example.)

That same on-paper ability is what makes “Awaken, My Love!” a well-executed project: He has clearly absorbed a great deal of musical history, as the album nods to Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, Rick James, Prince, and more. There are times, however, when that nodding feels more like mimicry than anything else. Maybe he’ll figure out how to smuggle Donald Glover’s heart into Childish Gambino’s brain eventually, but if he hasn’t figured out what he wants out of Childish Gambino yet, it’s increasingly rewarding watching him try.

The follow-up to 'Awaken, My Love!' could be coming soon

Donald Glover has been busy lately, reinventing television with Atlanta, stealing the show in Star Wars movies and still finding time to work on a new Childish Gambino album, which is thought to be his last under the moniker.

Glover last released a Gambino album with the Grammy-nominated ‘Awaken, My Love!’ in December 2016. Here’s everything we know so far about its follow-up.

• Read more: Here’s why 2018 is Childish Gambino’s for the taking.

Why is Glover retiring Childish Gambino?

Discussing his reasons for retiring his rap project, Glover toldThe Huffington Post in June 2017: “There’s nothing worse than like a third sequel, like a third movie and we’re like, ‘again?’ You know, I like it when something’s good and when it comes back there’s a reason to come back, there’s a reason to do that.”

Glover has spoken about Childish Gambino being a temporary project in the past. “I want to have periods in my life. I feel like Childish Gambino is a period that should come to a close. I like endings,” he said back in 2015.

Could it be his last album altogether?

Perhaps – Glover’s creative director Ibra Ake hinted in an interview with radio station WNYC that the forthcoming LP is Glover’s “last” record completely.

“I think we like to keep stuff under wraps, but there’s more coming, and we like to think of ourselves as like the Avengers every time we can assemble and all our schedules are in line,” Ake said of future plans in the pipeline.

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Ake added: “So that’s happening right now and we’re working rapidly to just get as much out as we can. Especially this last run, to really make a big bang, because this is Donald’s last album.”

Glover recently opened up about his thoughts on the music industry, saying that “no one has good intentions”.

Explaining his disenchantment with the entertainment industries, Glover said: “Before my first album came out, I wanted people to like me, and to realise that I had good intentions. Then I realised that no one has good intentions—we all just have incentives.”

When will it be released?

The album’s expected to be released at some point in 2018, coming via Wolf + Rothstein and RCA Records.

Donald Glover performing as Childish Gambino

What songs could feature on the album?

Probably recent single ‘This Is America’, which came with a powerful and political video that went viral online. NME‘s Sam Moore previously wrote of the clip: “It’s the sort of agenda-setting, sit-up-and-take-notice work which only comes around every so often: it’s not even a stretch to describe it as a seismic moment in popular culture. You can watch it over and over again and still pick up on something new.”

As well as ‘This Is America’, Glover also performed another new song called ‘Saturday’ on SNL in May. That may also feature on the next LP.

What could the album sound like?

‘Awaken, My Love!’ saw Glover move away from the rap-leaning sound of the earlier Gambino albums and this next record could continue this path.

Glover has previously said: “I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things and I always had a reason to be punk. Being punk just always felt really good to me and we always looked at Atlanta as a punk show and I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore. As much as ‘Redbone’ is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio.”

What happened to that Chance The Rapper collaboration?

In February 2017, Glover said that the two artists were planning on collaborating. “We actually, like, sat down in the studio and were talking for a little bit. When he has a moment, we’ve been sitting down and working together,” he said at the time.

Glover later said: “I feel like if I don’t make a Chance the Rapper mixtape, like a double mixtape, a bunch of 14-year-olds will kick my ass.“

Then in March of this year, Chance confirmed that the pair had collaborated, saying: “We perpetuated that rumour for a long time without recording anything… We did link up in Atlanta and record some tracks and… they’re amazing.”

Chance previously featured on the Gambino tracks ‘They Don’t Like Me’ and ‘The Worst Guys’ while Glover featured on the ‘Acid Rap’ track ‘Favourite Song’.

Has a tour been announced?

Glover recently announced a Childish Gambino tour with Rae Sremmurd. Glover will hit the road during September, playing shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Houston, Dallas, Inglewood, Oakland, Seattle and Vancouver.

He is also set to visit the UK for what’s set to be a very special headline slot at Lovebox Festival in London in July.