As society contends with sickness, anger, and fear, Donald Glover remedies the malignancy while fueling the anguish. 3.15.20 signals an important shift for Childish Gambino and secures the album's spot as one of the best of the year.
There is so much to dig into with 3.15.20 and it’s a journey that you’ll want to keep coming back to. Initially through the record’s amazingly intricate production and performances and then as time goes on to dig deeper into the sentiments that Glover is trying to impart. This is a dense but not confounding piece of work that speaks to it’s creators motivation and aspiration.
3.15.20 is as spell-binding, illuminating and honest as any of the great albums in recent history.
Glover is fearless and definitely not afraid to fall flat in the quest for something new or real. 3.15.20 is both of those things and is the second classic, timeless and timely Childish Gambino record in a row.
Glover shelves start societal commentary, but continues to offset sweetness with sour notes.
Though there may be a lull at the midway point of the album, the rest is an endlessly interesting, shape-shifting beast where nothing stays still for too long. It is restless and searching like all good art and it’s the best Childish Gambino album to date.
As engaging as these songs are on multiple levels, 3.15.20 really excels when Glover experiments with form, texture and sensory overload.
Real-world events forced a rush release that marked 03.15.20 as frustrating and divisive as anything its creator has made in the past 10 years.
It’s more of a vibe record, akin to Marvin Gaye’s undersung In Our Lifetime; it rises and blossoms with attentive repeat listening. Luckily, a lot of us have a lot more time on our hands right now, so one is more likely to have the chance to fully absorb it.
While the motivation behind the roll-out and release of ‘3.15.20’ remains up for debate, the new tracks do present a set of intriguing and well-executed contributions to Glover’s expanding discography — while continuing to steer clear of the Gambino raps of old, of course.
Though Gambino takes himself a bit too seriously at times, 3.15.20's pleasant moments make up for his missteps.
Like an episode of Atlanta, 3.15.20 takes us in various, episodic directions that are snapshots into the thought process of Donald Glover. He ties it all together with the unifying, timeless theme of love. It’s just a shame his vision was marred by musical risk-taking that falls flat almost as much as it soars.
Donald Glover’s got big hooks and big ideas, but his spiritual largesse is weighed down by impulses carried halfway to their endpoints and moments of frustrating pretense.
Lacking the strong narrative thrust so apparent on his past albums, the project is incredibly disappointing.
Go back to sleep, Donald.
Among the arguments that can be used to criticize a record, there is one - after the hypocritical "it's ... peculiar" - which particularly irritates me: "It's soulless". When someone says that to me, especially about an album I like, I just want to punch him in the face and make him go around his underpants three times in the direction of Pyongyang; hello the lapidary statement to which you can only answer a no less sterile one: "Uh no,... in ... read more
Everything seems to be falling apart worldwide right now. I don’t even feel the need to elaborate about COVID-19, but I’m just reminding you not to pick that pimple, don’t fulfill that itch, and go wash your hands right now. Stay inside as much as you can to curve the rate of infection. This shit is scary, we don’t know what’s going on, but we’ll all get through it. To go along with that, apparently, nobody knows how, or when, or why, or what this is. ... read more
This has been the strangest month of my entire life. What the actual fuck is going on? Coronavirus, new Weeknd, new Gambino, & new Uzi?
It’s a strange rollout, and I’m a little confused. I was so excited for a Gambino album, and I’m glad it’s here, but it all feels a little....off? I was expecting a traditional album rollout, but this just feels confusing. I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. But the music is very good, so I don’t know how to ... read more
Happy (almost) fourth anniversary! I don't know why everyone dislikes this album so much, it's really good! I like how each album has a different sound and vibe, very experimental. The few faults I can give this is that some songs are longer than needed and a couple are a bit boring.
Fav Tracks: 53.49, 12.38, Algorythm
Least Fav Tracks: 42.26, 24.19, Time
#3 | / | Good Morning America |
#3 | / | Variety: Jem Aswad |
#14 | / | PopMatters |
#21 | / | Hot Press |
#48 | / | Esquire (UK) |
/ | AllMusic |