Album Review: Childish Gambino, Bando Stone and The New World

We’ve reached the curtain-falling farewell to multi-hyphenate Donald Glover’s alter ego, Childish Gambino.

The nerdy, goofy persona was a perfect fit on early tracks like 'IV. Sweatpants' and 'V. 3005'. Then came the irresistible late-night jam 'Redbone', a sharp left turn that saw Childish Gambino fuse the old guard with the avant-garde.

Gambino's standing reached an apex with 'This Is America' - perhaps blurrier and less rebellious than some reviews suggested, but a powerful artistic statement nonetheless. Now arrives Bando Stone and The New World, Glover's fifth and final album under the Childish Gambino moniker. As suggested by a sleeve bearing the fingerprints of JPEGMAFIA, Rivers Cuomo and George Clinton, the record sees its creator trying on a number of new hats.

The experimentation is successful on 'Yoshinoya', which finds the rapper directing watch-your-tongue warnings at an unnamed adversary (many believe it to be Drake). The flow is among the album's most fluid, bristling with passive-aggressive humour, as Gambino issues a “code red for the old heads”, who slag his “short shorts and PRO-Keds”. It's the kind of lyrical jab the rapper can write in his sleep, though no less enjoyable for it.

At times, the LP is wildly eclectic and lacking in focus. But what it lacks in cohesion, it more than makes up for in style and wit.

Behold, The New World. 

7/10