Atavista

After the brilliant throwback masterpiece "Awaken, My Love!" and the moment-defining "This Is America," Donald Glover could have traded in his critical and cultural cachet for cash by shooting for the mainstream and cranking out more tracks guaranteed to follow in those giant footsteps. Luckily, for anyone who likes their pop stars weird and unpredictable, the 2020 Childish Gambino record 3.15.20 is an expansive, mind-bending trip that never takes an expected step.

Over a two-year span, Glover and a team that included DJ Dahi and long-time collaborator Ludwig Göransson tweaked the songs as they experimented with sound and structure. The end result is a challenging, hooky, mysterious, and odd record that feels like it was built out of pieces left over from a collision between OutKast, David Bowie, Sly & the Family Stone, and Prince. Add in bits borrowed from Flaming Lips, Tyler, The Creator, and Lee Perry, and it's a mad scientist's take on modern pop with Glover at the middle alternately crooning with honey-dipped sweetness, rapping menacingly, crying out in pain, and craftily telling tales. Turns out it was also only a first draft Glover almost half-heartedly released.

In 2024, he re-released the record under the name Atavista with a new mix and a shuffled tracklist that drops "Feels Like Summer" and two other songs, while adding two songs (the synth-driven, mid-tempo lite-pop title track and the highly-caffeinated, heavily rhythmic "Higher Language") and a couple new guest appearances. The shuffling doesn't change the overall sound of the album much, though on the whole it sounds more carefully constructed and less like a dark night of the soul kind of album.

One thing is exactly the same and that's the degree of imagination and ingenuity that's gone into the construction of every inch of every song. Glover and team never stick to one idea when two or three would make things more interesting and they constantly try and pull off seemingly bonkers dares. Why not mix a totally hooky chorus with a frightening, growled robo-rap ("Algorithm") or use the catchiest tune since "Chicken Noodle Soup" to tell the harrowing tale of a young drug dealer ("Little Foot. Big Foot")? Why not take a drifting, outer space ballad that would have fit nicely on Primal Scream's Screamadelica ("Time") and add the vocals of one of the biggest pop stars alive in Ariana Grande? How about a seven-minute drug trip/seduction track ("Psilocybae (Millennial Love)") rapped by a sped-up Glover in gleefully rambling fashion or a stomping synth pop track that sounds like it was extracted from a broken four-track hidden in Prince's vault ("To Be Hunted")? Maybe the chillest, sexiest -- but still troubled -- song ("Sweet Thang") could feature Glover running his voice through a computer first, then a shredder before the whole thing bursts into heavenly chimes or the could end with a scathing, funk jam where he twists his voice into falsetto pretzels and screams over a ghostly gospel choir ("Final Church"). It all makes sense somehow, and even though Glover is on about a hundred different trips at once, they all lead back to his heavy heart and troubled soul.

Some of the record is funny, some is sad, and some is harrowing, but everything dazzles in some way and shows off his growing skill as a sonic ringleader who's never afraid to take a flying leap into the unknown. So many people in his place regularly go for the safe landing, but Glover is fearless and definitely not afraid to fall flat in the quest for something new or real. 3.15.20 definitely fit both those bills and the new, improved Atavista does too and is the second (and/or third) classic, timeless, and timely Childish Gambino record in a row.

Side A
1. Atavista 
2. Algorythm          
3. Time feat. Ariana Grande      

Side B
1. Psilocybae (Millennial Love) feat. 21 Savage, Ink & Kadhja Bonet 
2. To Be Hunted

Side C
1. Sweet Thang feat. Summer Walker
2. Little Foot Big Foot feat. Young Nudy  

Side D
1. Why Go To The Party  
2. Human Sacrifice  
3. The Violence  
4. Final Church