Dropping surprise albums has become popular among artists, with Donald Glover being the latest to surprise his fans with a full release. But it also comes with plenty of questions.
With so many people working from home, off school, practicing social distancing, or even dealing with self-quarantine, as more and more of the nation shuts down on a daily basis, many people are struggling to find ways to entertain themselves and pass the time in an increasingly shuttered world, thanks to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
While Disney has early-released both “Frozen 2” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” to streaming services to help stressed families out, Glover is doing them one better with all-new material featuring the likes of Ariana Grande, SZA and 21 Savage. But did he bring Childish Gambino along?
It’s not clear if this is meant to be a Donald Glover release or a Childish Gambino release because there’s so little information about the release out there. In fact, at the time of writing, the album isn’t even available on traditional streaming services.
Instead, fans have to log into a dedicated site Glover has set up for streaming the album, and its sparse design isn’t helping anything.
Under the presumed albums title, “Donald Glover Presents,” is a long drawn image of a crowd dealing with what appears to be mass panic. Some are taking selfies, others jumping from burning buildings, laughing, dancing, screaming … you know, the usual responses.
Just below this is a subtle text box. Users can type whatever they want into the box and by hitting enter, presumably submit their message to Glover. NME reports that some fans think this is Glover’s way of soliciting their suggestions for a formal album title.
At the moment, the album appears to only be available to listen to in its entirety, though Genius does have a track listing. It’s uncertain if these are official song titles or their best guesses (though we do know three tracks for certain).
It wasn’t even clear if this was an official release, until a member of Glover’s management team retweeted someone sharing the link to the album during the overnight hours on Friday.
Also unclear is if this is to be considered the long-awaited last album under the Childish Gambino name. Glover has been promising for years that his latest tour and album would be the last. The tour wrapped in 2019 after several dealys, but Variety notes the album never materialized.
There is no mention of the Gambino name in the material present, but it does include the 2018 Childish Gambino release, “Feels Like Summer.”
There are two other tracks affiliated with Glover’s alter ego on the album. “Warlords” was part of his 2019 Coachella set while he shared “Algorhythm” as part of an augmented reality app last year.
It could be that those tracks are simply hold-overs from that era of his career, and he considers them Donald Glover tracks now, or maybe this is the final word on Childish Gambino.
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