Childish Gambino reveals tracklist for final album

Childish Gambino has revealed the tracklist of his upcoming fifth studio album. After announcing that this one will be the last under his rap name, the record, titled Bando Stone & the New World, will no doubt hold a special place in his fans’ hearts.

Bando Stone & the New World will be Gambino’s second album of 2024. In May, he released Atavista, a reissued version of his 2020 record 3.15.20. However to Gambino, this take was the “finished version”, finally allowing him to put that album to bed now it felt complete in the form he wanted it to be in.

Completing that project appears to have opened the floodgates of his creativity, as his next album, Bando Stone & the New World, is coming only three months later. That influx of energy for his artistic vision hasn’t only translated into music either, as the new album will also provide a soundtrack for a film of the same name.

A trailer for the movie revealed the plot and the themes that are expected to surface on the album. It’s a futuristic dystopia as Gambino takes on the titular role of Bando Stone, a singer stumbling into a post-apocalyptic world. He then teams up with a woman and her son to fight prehistoric creatures and try to escape from an unexplained phenomena that seems to delete “chunks” of the world.

The album’s first single, ‘Lithonia’, revealed a very different sound for the artist as it strayed into more pop-punk or rock waters. It’s clear that this is a moment of total artistic reshaping for Gambino, leaving a big question mark hanging over what this new album might sound like as he prepares to finally leave behind his moniker and start something totally fresh.

Now, he’s revealed the tracklist for the album, giving a slight insight into what can be expected. The record features plenty of collaborations with artists, including Jorja Smith, Chlöe, Flo Milli and the psychedelic rock troupe Khruangbin. Amaarae also features on the album twice, already heard on the single ‘In The Night’ as well as being featured on the upcoming track, ‘Talk My Shit’.

However, some of Gambino’s regular collaborators are missing. Steve Lacy and Kamasi Washington both attended the Bando Stone listening party. It was reported that Lacy had worked on the song ‘Step’s Beach,’ while Washington provided horns on a track called ‘Survivor.’ Neither are listed as featured artists, so perhaps there are more names of note to come when the full personnel of the album is revealed, allowing fans to see who contributed to the music across the record but isn’t credited as a full feature.

Bando Stone & the New World is set for release on July 19th, 2024.

Bando Stone & the New World tracklist:

  1. ‘H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT TO F7Y;’ featuring Amaarae
  2. ‘Lithonia’
  3. ‘Survive’ Feat. Chlöe
  4. ‘Steps Beach’
  5. ‘Got To Be’
  6. ‘Real Love’
  7. ‘In The Night’ featuring Jorja Smith & Amaarae
  8. ‘Yoshinoya’
  9. ‘Can You Feel Me’ featuring Legend
  10. ‘No Excuses’
  11. ‘Cruisin’ featuring Yeat
  12. ‘We Are God’
  13. ‘Running Around’ featuring Fousheé
  14. ‘Dadvocate’
  15. ‘Happy Survival’ featuring Khruangbin
  16. ‘A Place Where Love Goes’