Childish Gambino Bando Stone And The New World 2-LP Vinyl (6F9966)

It is with a certain sadness for his fans across mediums that Donald Glover has declared Bando Stone and the New World the last Childish Gambino album. The ostensible soundtrack to a feature-length movie of the same name, the hour-long project includes snippets of dialogue that hint at the film’s apocalyptic subject matter. The fact that the soundtrack is preceding the actual film is part of Glover’s strategy: He wants listeners to work to figure out what they’re listening to. “The soundtrack forces the audience to participate in a way that I don´t feel like most things force you to participate,” he says. “It forces you to have an imagination. I already see people being like, ´This is very cinematic, this must be the part that... This feels like a credit sequence.´ A lot of stuff feels flat because it´s not asking you to participate. Art used to be you had to participate on some level and have some sort of thought process on it. You can´t just be like, ´Oh, this is mid.´” Even without the benefit of the full visuals, these 17 tracks make for a satisfying swan song that synthesizes what came before with fresher ideas gleaned from the threshold of finality.