Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, has been a creative presence in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years. He was first thrust into the public eye just a few months before I was born when his college comedy troupe, “derrickcomedy,” went viral on YouTube. Since then, Glover has been an ever-shifting force in music, film, television, and pop culture. His shift from focusing on chronically-online, intentionally self- deprecating humor to creating critically acclaimed and often surreal pieces of art has been one of the most interesting—and most successful— artistic rebrands of the last decade.

“Bando Stone and the New World” is an album meant to accompany a piece of visual art, much like Glover’s 2013 “Because the Internet.” However, that album was released under entirely different circumstances: after Glover left his long-time role on NBC’s “Community” and before he dove into his full-time role directing, producing, and starring in FX’s “Atlanta.” Largely due to Glover’s lack of commitment to the piece, or perhaps a lack of total creative focus, “Because the Internet” is accompanied by an unfinished 20-minute short film called “Clapping for the Wrong Reasons.” “Bando Stone and the New World,” on the other hand, was released with a full-length movie trailer on July 19. The movie release date is unknown.

Immediately after wrapping up work on “Atlanta” in 2022, Glover began to work on “Bando Stone,” the final album under his Childish Gambino moniker. With the movie’s release date and plot unknown, it is exceedingly difficult to review the album as a comprehensive piece of art. Maybe there’s a movie review in this column’s future—for now, I just want to get some of my thoughts out there.

The album listens like the soundtrack it is, the same way Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Black Panther” album does; the tracks are beautiful when isolated but fall flat as a comprehensive art piece. This is, of course, because they are meant to be played at different times during a film, but without the movie as a compass, even back-to-back tracks have basically nothing in common, varying between Glover’s best Yeezus-era Kanye impression (think harsh, thumping, and repetitive) to verifiable elevator music (think “Harry’s House”).

The opening track, “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥,” comes from the former category. Uncharacteristically, Glover comes straight onto the first song at the beginning of the album, rapping over a broken-CD instrumental that grates on the ears and makes the song unlistenable less than a minute in. He channels 2013 Kanye lyrically, as well: “Everybody hatin’ tryna get like me/everybody Satan and I’m G-O-D!”

The next song, “Lithonia,” is a total break, lyrically and sonically. As far as Glover makes clear in the trailer, the “Bando Stone” movie is about a world where a singer (the main character, played by Glover) is trapped on an abandoned island during an apocalypse. Stone’s salvation comes in the form of a woman and a boy (played by Jessica Allain and Glover’s son, Legend, respectively). The song “Lithonia” is about a man named Cody Larae (presumably Stone’s non- stage name) coming to terms with making music for his love of the art rather than seeking fame after realizing that the world outside the island has been destroyed: “Cody Lerae/He had a break/He’s findin’ out/That nobody gives a f—.” The song is funny, and the lyrics nod to the sound bites that permeate the entire album and the trailer: Allain asking Glover if he can perform basic wilderness survival skills, and Glover incessantly responding, “No… but I can sing!”