Childish Gambino’s Final Album ‘Bando Stone and the New World’ Is Here

It’s time to say goodbye to Childish Gambino. On Friday, Donald Glover officially released Bando Stone and the New World, his sixth and final album under the Childish Gambino moniker.

“It’s a big goodbye album,” he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1.

The 17-track LP — which features singles “In the Night” with Jorja Smith and Amaarae and “Lithonia” — is meant to be a soundtrack album for a film of the same name. Glover debuted a trailer for the film during showings of A Quiet Place: Day One and at the 2024 BET Awards earlier this summer. Glover has yet to release the film, and it’s unclear when it will come.

“The soundtrack forces the audience to participate in a way that I don’t feel like most things force you to participate. It forces you to have an imagination,” he told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “All of that stuff allows you to have to participate, which a lot of stuff doesn’t ask you to do, which is why I think a lot of stuff feels flat.”

Ghanaian American star Amaarae is featured heavily on the record, joining him on album opener “H3@rt$ W3re M3@nt T0 F7¥,” on “In the Night,” and again on “Talk My Shit” with Flo Milli. The LP also features collaborations with Chlöe on “Survive” and Yeat on “Cruisin.” Glover also includes vocals from his son 7-year-old son Legend on the track “Can You Feel Me.”

Glover will also bring the album on the road during his New World Tour, later this year, which he teased is “made for arena rock” meant to be played live.

“If this live show isn’t the best live show you’ve ever seen by the first song, you can have your money back,” Glover said. “When you hear all these songs, you’ll know them. I’m going to add all these new songs. I’m going to add all this new technology, but the live event is what makes it valuable to me.”

Glover first announced Bando Stone in April, when he revealed that he would drop two LPs as the final projects under his Childish Gambino name. “We’re releasing Atavista, but after that, there’s the final Childish Gambino album — a soundtrack for the fans,” he said at the time. Atavista served as an official re-release (and partial reimagining) of 2020’s 3.15.20.

While promoting the record, Glover has dropped hints about the new album on his Instagram Live. “I feel like there’s just people not having enough fun… When I was a kid there was, like, big things that would unite us and I just feel bad for y’all,” he said about the record last month. “I feel bad for some of y’all.”

In 2017, Glover told Huffington Post during a promo event for his show Atlanta that he was planning on retiring the moniker at some point.

“There’s nothing worse than like a third sequel, like a third movie, and we’re like, ‘again?’” he said. “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.”