"Awaken, My Love!"

Kinda blown away by this guy's range of talents. A dazzling postmodern hybrid that evokes a wide range of influences.

My submission Rating: 10/10

"Awaken" forces a decision: Meaning or pleasant sounds? It's a weird choice in a tradition where flimsy concept ought to be granted. The album is more of a door than a destination; It's also middle-loaded. Rating-misgivings aside, it sounds great.

Just one of the best from one of the best. Redbone felt like such a revelation when it came out, and still hits very hard. Unlike the rest of his albums, and yet totally of a chord with all of it.

The album where CG ascended out of the known universe to better humanity

The other Gambino that needs to be on the list, full stop. I am happy you added this, since I couldn't after adding Because the Internet.

Nice pick! I really enjoyed the music - very funky! I can list a lot of albums on the official list that this should replace. I hadn’t listened to Childish Gambino before. I think I had some reluctance because this is the alter-ego of an actor and even though I have nothing against Danny Glover something about that made me suspicious. Glad someone has finally forced me past that preconceived notion because I’ve been a bit funk-deficient lately.

This is an excellent start to the User Submitted Albums. I loved the retro feel of it with a more modern take. I will listen again.

I was familiar with a couple of tracks, but not the entire album. I am happy that someone added this to our list.

Thanks for recommending this! Reallly fun.

2:04 me and your mama tells you all you need to know about this album.

Absolute genius, from one of the most interesting artists (and actors) of the last decade. Sounds like Prince and OutKast had a party in ATL and decided to make a Parliament/Funkadelic tribute album - and nailed it!

More scripture for the testament that 2016 was an epic music year. So happy someone chose this as their album. I'm currently using a ranking engine to determine my top 100 albums and this is number 24 (always subject to change but that was based on an average of four rounds of 1v1 rapid fire). Childish had already proven who he was with Camp and Because the Internet , not to mention the freaks and geeks mixtape. This felt so out of left field and in some ways felt like a super hero revealing another power mid fight. Ludwig Goransson worked with him on this album too and this was right before he did Black Panther. The funk is strong with this album and there is a capturing of that timeless R&B sound prevalent on songs like California and Boogieman. It feels like the soundtrack to some afrofuturistic dystopian zombie movie. Also how about that album cover! I think Miles Davis would say it is his kind of blue.

I'm a fan of Glover in general but sometimes feel like the music trends to style over substance, though maybe I haven't given the lyrics sufficient scrutiny. And the style is very stylish indeed.

This album infuses hip hop with 70s style funk and R&B in shades of Parliament/Funkadelic and Bootsy Collins. Donald Glover does a great job incorporating these influences though there are a couple of songs which don’t land. Overall, it’s one of his stronger albums.

All Childish Gambino has one absolute banger of a song that keeps me coming back, but I just never enjoy the entirety of his albums that much - not sure why - kinda feels like a collection of unreleased beats - Like Atavista, which I think recently became its own album. Previously all the songs were just numbers. 3.15.20 - and thats what the songs feel like 4

Not as good as his best album imo "camp" but still an incredibly mature sophisticated album which takes you on a journey. This one is more Soul focused.

Very good!

Glad to have listened. Interesting and creative.

Strong in general without being too exceptional anywhere

Nice rap album by Donald Glover. Some of the weirder songs remind me of Danny Brown. Acting and music seems to be a good combination (compared to sports and music. Something about creativity, I guess).

It's not my favourite CG album, but it's a great experiment in making a whole wonky soul album. And some of them are tunes.

Childish Gambino gifted us this.

When this came out it was pretty mindblowing this was a bambino album as he was known for his pun lyrically filled rap songs. A few of his songs and singing but nothing like this. A full funk R&B album. This was something I thought resembled the works of George Clinton but with a modern spin. It’s very good and probably my second favorite Bino album. 8.3/10

Ah Donald Glover. I can't say I'm really all that familiar with the music but I definitely know of it. I'm more familiar with his comedy. Spelling Bee is a great sketch. More of this should have been on the list instead. It's still baffling they excluded anything by him. It's great beats and good vibes. My personal rating: 3.5/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Yes.

Love this album! Cool that we've had two from Gambino on the post-list. Because the Internet will always be my favorite from him, but this one was such a cool surprise when it dropped. Dude pivoted from punchline rap to pitch perfect P-funk. Excellent album, a great ride all the way through. Even the goofiness of "California" is fun to me. Favorite tracks: Me and Your Mama, Redbone, Boogieman, Zombies, California, Terrified, Baby Boy, The Night Me and Your Mama Met. Album art: Has to be a reference to Funkadelic's Maggot Brain, I know Donald Glover is a fan. Really cool blue effect to this, the woman looks possessed. Am I correct in remembering that there was some dispute as to her payment for this photoshoot? Don't quote me on that. 4.5/5

He stretches himself and mostly comes away with it, though it doesn't sustain across the album. This dude can do almost anything.

A fantastic homage to 70s funk with a massive Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone influence. It’s spacy and groovy and Glover is at his most electric all over this. A massive switch up from the hip-hop and pop bangers of his earlier albums, this is just straight up stank. The first half is incredible, especially the epic opener Me and Your Mama and the massive single Redbone, but the album does kind of drop off in the second half. A couple of songs near the end are a bit forgettable, and the closing track Stand Tall has a perfect hook that just drowns in its overbearing effects and unconvincing key changes. That first half though, god damn

This is some gnarly R&B funk

I've never listened to any of Donald Glover's work, other than the one album that was on the original 1,001 albums list. Like that album, this also surprised me a bit, feeling more like classic R&B than what I would think of as hip hop. 3 stars.

Another childish Gambino album? ffs. It's not bad but I didn't really want to hear it. 3/5.

Donald Glover is a formidable talent, his TV shows Atlanta and Mr & Mrs Smith are simply brilliant. Also the single Redbone is arguably one of the songs of the decade. Unfortunately apart from Redbone there wasn't much on this album to excite me, hence it only gets a middling 3 stars from me.

Gave it a couple of listens, and must say that it was quite pleasing.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Per usual for a Gambino album, this is a lush journey with some excellent production, arrangements, and thematics. Personally prefer Internet/Camp for their harder-hitting synth stylings and tongue-in-cheek vibe, but I can't fault Glover for exploring other genres and executing them with perfection.

Well produced and styled, however it lacks coherence

Expected hip-hop and got Funkadelic "space funk-rock". Very cool.

Excellent. Funky, spacey, creative and deeply nuanced. A little soft on the back half, but I really enjoyed it. Fave Songs: Baby Boy, Me and Your Mama, Have Some Love, Stand Tall, Redbone, The Night Me and Your Mama Met

I'm more familiar with Donald Glover's work as an actor and television writer/producer/creator than I am with his music. I'm not sure I've listened to this before if I did I don't remember. I enjoyed him on Community, I think his casting as Lando was genius and Atlanta was truly one of the great TV shows of this century. Maybe that's why this feels like a little bit of a disappointment to me. It's not terrible or anything, it actually sounds amazing. I was surprised to learn that he regularly works with Ludwig Göransson who has done so much wonderful soundtrack work in recent years. He and Glover make a great team but a lot of this feels like pastiche. It's well produced r&b and funk but there's something empty about it. I know this is considered a departure musically so maybe if i were more familiar with Glover's discography, pretty much all I can recall is This Is America (and of course that's memorable because of its video) so maybe that unfamiliarity is causing me to miss something here. I don't hate this, I'd add it to a mix for a road trip or a get together but it's kind of forgettable.

Ddddaaaayyyylighttt

Nokkuð gott, vandist vel þegar á leið.

Troy Barnes, the man that is related to Barack Obama and Danny Glover.

I have a weird relationship with Mr. Don Glover. I do think he's a super talented individual, but I just wish people weren't so quick to fellate him about it. This record has an obvious love for early funk (specifically, I think, P-Funk and anything Bootsy has touched), and while it comes out sounding good, I think it leans a bit too much on the influences. The most popular song ("Redbone") being essentially a clone of "I'd Rather Be With You" is notable. It's solid, I'm just tired of Glover's yowling after a while. Favorite tracks: "Redbone", "Terrified"

A unremarkable soul and funk experience. It is fine, with Redbone really being the only track that really stands out and is instantly catchy. The rest is well executed, but isn't very engaging for me.

It's decent. I think if I listened to it a few times in a row, it might grow on me, but nothing really popped for me. Nothing too catchy.

Doesn't hit me as hard as his other stuff.

R&B, soul, funk, psychedelic soul, psychedelic funk, psychedelic rock. Ni fu ni fa.

Varied and atmospheric hip hop. Would listen to this over the other Childish Gambino album on the list any day. Rating: 3 Playlist track: Redbone Date listened: 28/11/24

"Me and Your Mama" and "Redbone" are great, but nothing else really stuck in my mind... Except for that one song with unfathomably dogshit autotune that completely ruins the vibe of the record and made me burst out laughing. It's alright though. A completely fine album, and a better and more worthy pick than like 90% of the 2010s albums on the actual list.

Still obvious talent but not for me this one.

It’s a 2.5 for me. The first half is edgey funk which I really enjoyed. But unfortunately this fizzled out.

There's no impressive, energizing or motivating rhythm, ...it's just conventionally boring.