“Awaken, my Love!” Review

Album+cover+of+Awaken%2C+My+Love%21

Album cover of “Awaken, My Love!”

Donald Glover, Actor and musician, has put out 2 hip hop albums in the past 5 years. Though critically they were met with generally positive ratings, they are unarguably poorly executed. With the most recent release, “Awaken, my Love!”, Glover joins the ranks of hip hop artists with a resurgence of soul and funk influence. With previous albums this year like Malibu by Anderson Paak, Glover’s album stands out by completely dropping the hip hop aspect to focus on the funk and soul. Glover has shown an influence from this music style before, but never in so large a project, so when the track list revealed a broad vocal range as far as pitch and inflection, I was floored. The production is credited to Ludwig Göransson, who was the producer on Glover’s first album, Camp. Besides this, Ludwig has composed the score for a number of TV Shows and movies, including Community,  which Glover was a character in.

The first track, “Me and your Mama”, starts with a short interlude with a light and airy synth lead and a funk sounding bassline. The vocal melody sits well over both of these for a nice opening to the album that gives an idea of what the rest of the project will sound like. The instrumentation is varied with a lot of funk influence on the basslines and synths, as well as a soul feel for most of the accompanying vocals. The track quickly switches into a booming bass riff and Glover’s vocals, which feel really powerful over the beat, especially along with the harmony from the vocal accompaniment and interspersed samples. Near the middle half of the track, the instrumentation calms down to an almost beachy vibe. A soft guitar riff that fades into a wobbly bassline. The background consists of a lot of chime sounds and tambourine. The three distinct pieces of this track set the stage for the entire album, as each song reflects at least a segment of this first song. The next two tracks, “Have Some Love” and “Boogieman” have a strictly funk and soul influence. The vocal melodies and guitar over the drum kit are pleasing to the ears, as well as the funky synths that come in during Glover’s verse. The lyrics deal with racial tension in the United States, shown through a creative twist on the term boogeyman. Sadly, these songs highlight a problem that becomes more glaring as the album progresses: Glover’s vocal performance. Though he seems to have great skill in his vocal range, Glover ends up overdoing these songs in their verses, sounding exaggerated and detracting from the laid back, soul feel.

The next track,” Zombies”, features a similar vocal style, that this time fits well with the minimal beats during Glover’s vocals and ends up making this song one of the most entertainingly funky songs on the track list. Glover’s vocals when he breaks out of the exaggeration are stellar, adding almost as much to the track as the synth solo near the end. The song “Riot” shows the strongest part of the album, which is its incredibly layered instrumentation. With so many layers of effects, vocals, and synths, the tracks always feel crisp and clear, never bogged down by the abundance of different sounds. The only issue with “Riot” is how short its length is compared to how creative the structure is. The next track, “Redbone”, ends up standing out with it’s incredible vocals, fitting perfectly over smooth instrumentation. “Redbone”, along with “Me and Your Mama”, ended up being the perfect singles to showcase the quality coming from this album. This quality quickly diminishes with the next track “California.” The beach vibe presented earlier is strongest in this song’s instrumentation, with lots of creative percussion over the guitar, vocal melody, and later what sounds like glass bottles being used as wind as well as percussion instruments. This creative track is completely bogged down by the painfully overplayed vocals, as Glover tries to make each word sound as awkwardly enunciated as possible, smudging what could have been one of the best tracks on the album.

“Terrified” and “Baby Boy” move back towards the soul vibe from the front end of the album, the stand out segment being the organ sounding synths near the end of “Baby Boy”, as well as an interesting spoken word section. The track addresses his son, born earlier this year, and all Glover’s hopes and worries. “The Night Me and Your Mama Met” serves as an interlude similar to the one at the end of “Me and Your Mama”, and quickly transitions into the final track, “Stand Tall.” Glover’s vocals at the beginning of the track stand out especially for being completely unaffected by the earlier over-exaggeration. They give an upbeat vibe and talk about the advice his father gave him as a child, fitting well right after “Baby Boy.” The end of the track moves into an interesting synth and vocal melody that reminds me of something like the recent “Safe and Sound” off of Justice’s Woman, moving into a more funk sound as the album ends abruptly.

With it’s astounding instrumentals and emotion-filled vocals, this project easily makes its mark next to the other recent funk and soul influenced albums and easily warrants a listen from anyone with a slight interest in the genre.