Not content with adding the young Lando Calrissian to his acting CV (in a future Star Wars film), the Renaissance actor/TV writer/rapper born Donald Glover has also taken his former hip-hop alias – Childish Gambino – into new realms: retro-futurist funk. His target on Awaken, My Love! is the sense of stack-heeled possibility that imbued the early 70s, cut through with the squelch of fear (Zombies), the bittersweetness of non-custodial fatherhood (Baby Boy) and the voice-processing of the present day (California, Stand Tall). Throughout, Glover’s genre fluency is unimpeachable; the only minor drawback is the overmannered air of some of these period pieces, where there could be more straight-up abandon, as on the persuasive Me and Your Mama.
