Donald Glover’s – AKA Childish Gambino – cult following over the years has been well-documented. From his time on the cult classic TV show “Community” to his highly-touted comedy special as well as the hits off his album “Because the Internet” – Glover has achieved status as a Swiss army knife of talent that has achieved an audience of nothing by just being good at almost everything.
Despite being a figure with such a following, Gambino’s music, arguably the thing he is known the best for, doesn’t release frequently. Gambino’s last album before “3.15.20” was released in 2016 with the three singles “This is America,” “Summertime Magic” and “Feels Like Summer” all released in 2018. This made it even more surprising when Gambino released “3.15.20” out of nowhere.
Glover released “3.15.20” on his website, as one would guess, March 15, 2020. The album was only available to listen to for 12 hours before being made available on streaming platforms a week later. It took a while for me to review this album because I really needed to process what I was hearing. In short, what I heard wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad either. After four years of waiting for an album, it was difficult to process the fact an album, which obviously had so much work go into it and was so sonically diverse, would be so painfully average.
The main issue with this album is it does a lot… but some of those things just don’t work. A perfect example of this is the track “12.38.” The intro to the track is amazing but the song quickly derails as 21 Savage and Kadhja Bonet get involved on the track. This pairing of features is definitely an odd combination, and it’s painfully obvious they just don’t mesh well on this track. The song also had such a perfect and seamless intro that having it end with two off-putting features, in addition to needless instrumental effects, just left me very confused. The Kombucha girl meme is the perfect reaction to that track and album.
“12.38” is immediately followed by “19.10” and that track is perfect. However, “19.10” is followed by “24.19” which was just…. ugh. The lyrics on that song were so cringy. This three-track run on the album shows a repeated pattern for the album: an amazing song followed by a song that’s either just bad or only has a few redeeming qualities. For an artist of Glover’s caliber to fall into that pattern at this point in his career is incredibly disappointing. It’s a shame that I even have to equate the album to that type of description, because it’s evident how much time and effort was put into making the album and creating an experience that would excite Glover’s fans.
The rollout of the album was an adventure – scrambling to try and listen to and/or save the songs before they vanished, the content of the album is unique – just not in the best way in many spots.
Given the fact that Glover had also said a couple years ago that his next album would be the last under the “Childish Gambino” moniker, it’s disappointing for the name and that part of his career to go out on a mediocre whimper.
“3.15.20” gets a: 5/10
Teren Kowatsch can be reached at [email protected]