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 films apocalyptic subject matter. The fact that the soundtrack is preceding the actual film is part of Glovers strategy: He wants listeners to work to figure out what theyre 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.

SIDE 1 –
1 H3@RT$ W3Re M3@NT
2 Lithonia
3 Survive Feat. Chle
4 Steps Beach
SIDE 2 –
1 Talk My Shit Feat. Amaarae & Flo Milli
2 Got to Be
3 Real Love
4 In the Night Feat. Jorja Smith & Amaarae
5 Yoshinoya
SIDE 3 –
1 Can You Feel Me Feat. Legend
2 No Excuses
3 Cruisin’ Feat. Yeat
SIDE 4 –
1 We Are God
2 Running Around Feat. Foushe
3 Dadvocate
4 Happy Survival Feat. Khruangbin
5 A Place Where Love Goes