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Donald Glover has always been clear on one thing: he prefers making movies to making music. But if you look at his streaming numbers, the public has been clear on one thing: they like Childish Gambino’s music. So how does he gracefully go about sending off this moniker that has been practically ever-present in pop music since I graduated high-school? A soundtrack album, of course.
Now while Bando Stone and the New World is indeed (supposedly) the soundtrack to an upcoming piece of visual media by Glover (with a release date of TBA), I feel I should note that I mean ‘soundtrack album’ in a nebulous sense. The kind of genre-sprawling album that reaches for a different emotional crescendo in almost every single track, and often defies categorisation into one era or one location. Think Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Wong Kar-wai… I’m sure you have a favourite.
And while separated from the visuals they are supposed to be accompanying they can be jarring and incoherent, they’re also always a lot of fun to listen to. Here on Bando Stone it’s no different, and you bounce from one era of Gambino to the next at such a clip it’s hard for any of it to drag or outstay its welcome.
There’s more rapping here than he’s done in a long while, and yet, it’s also only a handful of tracks from a total of seventeen. There are pop bangers that WILL make white people turn up at parties, in the rich tradition of tracks such as 3005 and Bonfire. His soul and R&B side from Awaken, My Love gets plenty of love and the Kauai summer vibes shine through on certain tracks too.
To me, this is less the soundtrack of any actual film and more ‘the soundtrack to the film of the artist’. While it doesn’t appear coherent on the surface, if you put it within the context of the film, it makes total sense. Donald Glover runs it back one last time, and touches on all of the high points of his career as Childish Gambino. Fans of his will love it, and those not familiar will surely find a few tracks to enjoy.
