During his headlining set at Coachella earlier this year, Tyler, The Creator brought Donald Glover out as a surprise guest, thus defusing any notion that there was static between them—but in true Tyler fashion, he leaned into that narrative anyway, wisecracking that he “used to hate this n-gga” until Glover, who makes music under the moniker Childish Gambino, put out a song that was simply too great to hate. That song was “Urn,” a track on Glover’s seminal 2013 album Because the Internet. Despite being a decade-old album cut from a project and career that have since yielded much bigger singles, the clip quickly went viral off the strength of music fans (myself included) agreeing with Tyler profusely.
Running barely over a minute, “Urn” is a vibe shift, a palate-cleanser before Glover shifts gears and closes the remainder of the album out. But it’s hardly disposable. Over sparse but warm production from Glover and his right-hand producer Ludwig Goransson, Glover falsetto-yearns about life, loss and grief (this is when it’s crucial to point out that BTI came attached with a whole narrative screenplay, with songs corresponding to certain scenes in the story.) But these are all thinly sketched out ideas, intentionally so, to create the effect of nighttime mind-wandering. The beat sounds like sitting down in front of a warm fireplace in a cozy den; paired with the lyrics, it’s practically begging to be played and replayed on one of those late-night solo drives when you’re one of few cars still on the road.
I say all that to say: of all the different stylistic pockets and sonic muscles Glover has developed throughout this 15-year Childish Gambino experiment, his alterna-R&B bag is the best. Or, at least, my favorite. Which is why, on first listen of the new and reportedly final Gambino album Bando Stone and The New World, the songs that hew closer to that mold are the tracks I’m gravitating to the most so far.
If this really is his last project, it’s understandable why he would want to throw a little bit of everything into it. Gambino started, of course, as a rapper first and foremost and on new songs like “Yoshinoya,” he’s shown how far his flows and bars have come since, say, his Camp era. Bando also continues his trend of uplifting budding female talent, with multiple features from rising alté artist Amaaree and a scene-stealing guest spot from the underrated Flo Milli. The pop skills that he learned to harness on Because The Internet are also here (lead single “Lithonia”); the funk pivot of his acclaimed Awaken, My Love album and industrial, Yeezus-esque experiments from Altavista also get their time. And there are new waves, like the Rivers Cuomo bag Glover gets into alongside Foushee on “Running Around.”
But some of Glover’s best musical achievements have been when he just strips it back and croons his heart out. I’m thinking of yearn-fests like “Telegraph Ave,” which actually clears “Urn” as BTI’s best track, or “Sober” from 2014’s STN MTN/Kauai (which may just be his best project). That mixtape also saw him actually pull off a pretty damn good cover of Usher’s “U Don’t Have to Call,” with all of The Neptunes jiggy bounce reduced to a barely there beat that puts all the focus on Glover doing his best to hit Usher’s trademark notes.
