Childish Gambino has completely taken the music world by surprise with his third album “Awaken My Love!”. The combination of wailing guitar solos, gospel choruses, and psychedelic inspired melodies perfectly depict the album’s storyline through topics of love, race, and parenthood.

“I really like the album as a whole; it’s refreshing to hear an artist like Childish Gambino branch out and explore different styles,” said senior Mark Olson.

The album begins with the track “Me and Your Momma”, a six minute long journey as Gambino professes his love, blending aboriginal instruments with sweeping guitar riffs and solos, building to a dramatic and electric opening to the album.

One of the stand out tracks is “Redbone”, being one the most funky and laid back melodies of the album. What makes this track, along with the entire album, is the production. The sounds of futuristic guitar mixed with forceful piano chords and ambient undertones slowly build, perfectly paralleling Gambino’s narrative which depicts his desire to an uncommitted love.

One of the most interesting aspects to the album are the two tracks “Zombies” and “Boogieman”. They add a dark and very unusual tone, with layers of synthesizers combined with lyrics that set up a creeping, horror-movie like scenario, which Gambino uses as a warning about exploitation.

One of the most sentimental tracks is clearly “Baby Boy”, a loving ballad to Gambino’s son.

“My favorite tracks on the album are Zombies and Baby boy. Zombies is groovy and dark and Gambino’s vocal gymnastics give it an interesting tone. Baby boy is an absolute masterpiece. I love the meaning behind the song and how Ludwig (collaborator and producer on the album) and Gambino orchestrated all the instruments together to tell a story. I especially enjoy the part where Gambino pauses the main instruments so that he can address his child and tell him to walk tall in a world that is known for tearing people down,” said junior Andrew Gator.

The album is meant to be listened to as a whole, as many albums are, with a cohesive storyline and and progression of melodies and themes that combine to depict Gambino’s powerful message.

“This album is nothing like anything you have heard from Childish Gambino before,” said Gator.

Gambino has moved on from his previous style of rap and witty one liners, and has successfully created a platform for his new sentiments to be truly heard and understood through his album.