"Awaken, My Love!"

Description

Third studio album from the American hip hop artist. Featuring the singles 'Me and Your Mama' and 'Redbone', this album entered the UK Albums Chart at #34. Childish Gambino is (and isn't) Donald Glover, a recording artist, writer, actor, director, producer and comic who was gifted his alias by an online Wu Tang-Clan name-generator. Originally hailing from Stone Mountain, Georgia - his Mum was a daycare provider and his Dad a postal worker, where TV was banned in the house - Glover first entered the spotlight as a member of sketch-troupe Derrick Comedy, via a stint working on The Daily Show and the invitation to join the '30 Rock' writing staff by Tina Fey before he'd even graduated from NYU. A succession of mini-albums and mixtapes surrounded all of this, parallel to acting roles ranging from The Muppets to NBC's cult hit comedy 'Community'. It was 2011's debut album 'Camp' - his first since signing to Glassnote Records - which marked a breakthrough for Childish Gambino, whose music explores everything from identity, race, and technology to hip-hop culture, class, and family. Follow-up 'because the internet' went top 10 on the Billboard chart, was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards and further assimilated Gambino's multiple disciplines (it was accompanied, for instance, by two films and a standalone 72-page screenplay). Around this time - and between roles in HBO's 'Girls' and movies like 'The Martian' - Glover also announced that he was working on his own TV show: a comedy-drama which he would star in, write and direct, 'Atlanta' premiered on FX this autumn to significant critical acclaim (it's already been described as "Twin Peaks with rappers"). The show was launched alongside the third Childish Gambino, 'Awaken, My Love!', this summer at 'Pharos', a series of secretive, audio-visual live performances which took place in a custom-designed dome in the middle of the desert in Joshua Tree. A second series of 'Atlanta' has already been commissioned, whilst Glover has recently been cast in the forthcoming Spider Man movie and has also been confirmed to play the iconic role of Lando Calrissian in the next Star Wars film (a Han Solo spin-off). His most vital artistic statement to date, Childish Gambino is expected to unveil further music from 'Awaken, My Love!' in the coming weeks. Review: Great album - This is a great album that is defies classification. Strong Jazz, R&B, Funk, Soul and Hip Hop influences are fused to create a wonderful musical gumbo. The sound quality is terrific too, all credit to the engineer. Review: guitars that would sit well on Maggot Brain and then heads on through Stax/ Sly Stone era funk without sounding like any sort of - No, he doesn't rap on this one but you won't care. It's sublime. Starts in a Funkadelic-inspired mode, guitars that would sit well on Maggot Brain and then heads on through Stax/ Sly Stone era funk without sounding like any sort of pastiche. It's all a vehicle for Glover's take on the new consciousness. If you know his work, especially his show on Fox, you'll be expecting the intelligence of the lyrics. Seriously good buy.