Childish Gambino’s final album, “Bando Stone & The New World,” is one of his best. He took every creative liberty to make it. This album comes only two months after his previous album, “Atavista,” which is still fresh in the mind.
This album is unlike anything we’ve heard from him before, and that becomes very apparent in the second song on the album, “Lithonia.” This song starts out with a calm, almost rock ballad-like feel, with a slight beat and heaviness, but it almost feels as though Gambino is crying out to the world.
After the intro of “Lithonia,” the beat picks up, and it becomes an even harder rock song where it becomes even more noticeable that this song is a cry out from Gambino towards the person named in the title called Lithonia.
After “Lithonia” is done, the album moves onto a song that sounds very similar to one of his previous albums, “Because The Internet.” “Survive” takes the album back to what could be considered the old version of Gambino with a softer version of hip hop.
“Steps Beach,” the fourth song on the album, has a nice, smooth feeling to it. You can imagine yourself walking along a beach in the middle of the summer and taking in the scenery.
With the vivid imagery in this entire album, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that not only is this a stand-alone album but also a movie slated for a later release. Gambino has hinted at this for a few years, ever since he released “Because The Internet” with a screenplay.
The fact that this album is supposed to act as a soundtrack shouldn’t distract you from how good it is as a standalone. Generally, when a soundtrack album is released, it is either a mix of a few good songs with bad songs or does not work as well as a stand-alone album.
This final album truly feels like a send-off to the Childish Gambino character that Donald Glover has taken on.
Each song has some sort of connection that makes it sound or feel like it is from one of his previous albums. From a slow start in “Camp” to one of his biggest hits coming from “Awaken My Love” all the way up to some of his more experimental works in “Because The Internet,” each album has influenced this final one.
While Glover may be done with his music career under Childish Gambino, he still has other projects he works on or is involved in.
Gambino may be gone for now, but Glover will continue on, and there is a chance he will make music again.
Connor Anderson can be reached at [email protected]