In the wee hours of Sunday morning March 15, Donald Glover dropped his last album as Childish Gambino. True to his nature, Glover provided no explanation, 3.15.20 simply appeared on his website. Then it disappeared. The reviews are in. As well as a few explanations.
Donald Glover has a mysterious nature. He captured the attention of fans and critics by uploading 3.15.20 exclusively to his website. According to Genius the album was initially not available for download, and would simply play in a continuous loop. It then disappeared later that same day, and was replaced by a clock counting down to March 22, 2020. Finally on March 22 the album reappeared, and was available for streaming and download. Why all the drama? Because he's Childish.
HuffPost reports that at the end of his 2017 Governor's Ball music festival performance, Donald Glover announced to his fans, "I’ll see you for the last Gambino album." Several months later, Glover revealed the reason why his music career would be coming to an end.
He didn't feel the need to continuously create more music. He only wanted to make quality, groundbreaking music. He explained, "I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore. As much as ‘Redbone’ is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio."
That realization came three years ago, but Gambino has kept busy with his acting career. He was working on his show Atlanta as well as several movies such as Han Solo: A Star Wars Story and the live-action Lion King.
When he was ready to come back to music, Childish Gambino made quite the entrance. 3.15.20, also referred to as Donald Glover Presents after the disappearing act, is certainly "punk" in so far as it breaks all the rules.
The first appearance contained black and white album art, but with the official release, the album cover is simply a white square. The official name of the album is elusive, and the names of each track are equally enigmatic. Most songs are listed as their time signatures, but hip-hop heads from Genius have discovered the names for each track. The album also features "Feels Like Summer," which was part of the 2018 EP Summer Pack, masquerading as "42.26." However there is brand new material and fresh collaborations with Ariana Grande and 21 Savage. 3.15.20 may have been released without hype, but it does not disappoint.
Donald Glover is a man of many secrets. He keeps his family hidden from the media. His Instagram has 3.8 million followers, but zero posts. There was never any definitive announcement about whether or not he officially married his long-time love Michelle White.
Glover usually refers to Michelle as his partner, but last year in an Entertainment Tonight interview on The Lion King, he called Michelle his wife. Yet he was not wearing a wedding band. Nonetheless, the ever-mysterious Donald Glover offers fans a rare peek into his family life in this final album. '47.48' ends with Glover's son Legend singing and answering the question posed by Glover, "What do you love?" Legend was either coached very well, or he's an extremely pensive three-year-old, because he eventually responds, "And I love myself." He then poses the powerful question back to his dad, "Do you love yourself?"
DJBooth critic Hershal Pandya carefully studied the elements of each song of 3.15.20. He concluded, "It’s futuristic, otherworldly, and in step with modern pop, sometimes all at once. Across its 12 songs, 3.15.20 consistently defies structure and dashes momentum in favor of choirs, breakdowns, instrumental flourishes, and sometimes, just noise."
The album is a lot to take in musically, because Donald Glover is layering several different concepts. Some songs flow one into the other. Other songs blend music genres such as electronica and soul. Other songs simply drop a sick beat with a sick flow. The album is not so much "punk," but a fusion of funk, soul and hip-hop. Fans will have to listen to the album several different times to digest all the layers of meaning.
Fans may not know where 3.15.20 came from, but Childish Gambino did not disappoint. This final album builds upon his previous work, while simultaneously adding fresh ideas and new collaborations. It's mysterious in terms of its origin and its structure, yet one thing is clear: Donald Glover achieved his goal of releasing one last high-quality album that has new meaning. What that meaning is may be hard to pinpoint, but it is certainly there.
