Childish Gambino (the hitmaking alter ego of polymath prodigy Donald Glover) has unveiled ATAVISTA, a largely reworked redux of his fourth album, 3.15.20 (or its “finished version”, as the artist puts it), alongside news of an entirely new body of work.
The 11-track effort features a few new compositions – like the Young Nudy-assisted Little Foot Big Foot, and Sweet Thang with Summer Walker – however it mostly offers a more refined, musically elevated take on 3.15.20; the track 12.38 (featuring 21 Savage, Ink and Kadhja Bonet), for example, is now Psilocybae (Millennial Love).
With the release of ATAVISTA, Glover has removed the original version of 3.15.20 from streaming services. He confirmed on social media that “a special vinyl” for the new mix of the album will be “coming soon”, and said every song on the record will have dedicated visuals released in due time.
Furthermore, Glover teased that his fifth full-length album as Childish Gambino – supposedly the very last album he’ll release under the moniker, dubbed “a soundtrack for the fans” when he first spoke of it last month – will be released in the North American summer (winter for us Down Under).
In the meantime, he’s also released a video for Little Foot Big Foot – have a look at that below, then scroll on for the full stream of ATAVISTA.
In 2017, Glover told HuffPost about his plans to retire the Childish Gambino moniker, saying it “wouldn’t be punk anymore” to drag the name on too long. He commented while promoting the TV series Atlanta: “There’s nothing worse than a third sequel, like a third movie, and we’re like, ‘Again?’ You know, I like it when something’s good, and when it comes back, there’s a reason to come back. There’s a reason to do that.”
Glover continued, “I feel like there’s gotta be a reason to do things, and I always had a reason to be punk. Being punk just always felt really good to me. We always looked at Atlanta as a punk show, and I feel like the direction I would go with Childish Gambino wouldn’t be punk anymore. As much as Redbone is a punk song because it’s a gospel song that’s on the radio, I’m like, there’s only so far you can go before you just are the radio.”
