Childish Gambino Bando Stone and the New World 2LP

It is with a certain sadness for his fans across mediums that Donald Glover has declared Bando Stone and the New World the last Childish Gambino album. The ostensible soundtrack to a feature-length movie of the same name, the hour-long project includes snippets of dialogue that hint at the film's apocalyptic subject matter. The fact that the soundtrack is preceding the actual film is part of Glover's strategy: He wants listeners to work to figure out what they're listening to.

"The soundtrack forces the audience to participate in a way that I don't feel like most things force you to participate," he says. "It forces you to have an imagination. I already see people being like, 'This is very cinematic, this must be the part that... This feels like a credit sequence.' A lot of stuff feels flat because it's not asking you to participate. Art used to be you had to participate on some level and have some sort of thought process on it. You can't just be like, 'Oh, this is mid.'"

Even without the benefit of the full visuals, these 17 tracks make for a satisfying swan song that synthesizes what came before with fresher ideas gleaned from the threshold of finality.

Glover stitches together a modern pop whirlwind of an album that dips into trap, smooth R&B, jangling indie pop, hyperpop-inflected hip-hop, over-stuffed mainstream pop, and rock balladry while staying true to the sound and persona he's so ably created in the past.