Given that he’s the creator/star of a TV comedy – the brilliant Atlanta – that’s embedded in the world of hip-hop, you’d be forgiven for expecting Donald Glover to cover similar territory with his musical alter ego Childish Gambino. Indeed, his previous album under that name, Because the Internet, did just that. For his follow-up, though, Glover decided to run a mile from the genre: instead, Awaken, My Love is a prog-tinged funk opus situated somewhere between Sly and the Family Stone and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. In his rap incarnation, Glover was sometimes mocked for being inauthentic – a Hollywood type trying a rap career on for size. Yet any sense that his latest evolution is merely an affectation is disabused by opener Me and Your Mama, an opus that builds from hushed gospel to howling freakout. Glover has a keen ear for genre idiosyncrasies and Awaken, My Love is full of tiny rewarding details: the pinched surf guitar of California; the squalling organ blasts of the Parliament-Funkadelic-ish Riot. Only the limitations of his voice occasionally let him down – he doesn’t quite have the range to nail Awaken’s more ostentatious vocal lines. Still, it’s a minor gripe when there’s so much here to enjoy.
