Donald Glover briefly offered some solace amid all the self-isolation on Sunday. The multi-talented actor, Atlanta creator and Childish Gambino musician brightened up these panicky pandemic times by dropping a collection of (mostly) new music.

For around 12 hours, the ‘album’ – if that’s what it really was – played on a loop on the site ‘Donald Glover Presents’, accompanied by an unfinished illustration depicting a very modern scene of rioting, fiery chaos and selfie-taking.

Guttingly, the stream abruptly disappeared on Sunday evening (March 15), prompting howls of derision from Glover/Gambino fans all over. At the time of writing, there’s been no further news about when the songs – which didn’t come with a tracklist or credits – will return.

But what the brief online existence of ‘Donald Glover Presents’ (which, it should be noted, is also the name of his Adidas partnership) does confirm, however, is that Glover is, or at least was, ready to share his first album-length work since the soul and funk reinvention that defined his career-changing 2016 LP ‘“Awaken, My Love!”’.

That record changed many people’s typically lukewarm appraisal of Glover’s musicianship for the better, with the spine-tingling ‘Redbone’ quickly becoming a definitive song of the 2010s. Glover further shored up this facet of his creative versatility by inking a record deal with RCA in early 2018, promising that new music would follow.

But just three solo singles — including the quadruple Grammy-winning ‘This Is America’, his biggest musical moment to date — have emerged since, and so the unannounced arrival of ‘Donald Glover Presents’ has been anointed by many to be the long-awaited fourth Glover/Gambino album.

Of the scant few bits of concrete information that we have about the contents of ‘Donald Glover Presents’, we can at least ascertain that Glover’s regular producer and songwriting partner Ludwig Göransson is involved. That’s thanks to the inclusion of a bunch of previously released songs: the laidback sunset R&B of ‘Feels Like Summer’ (first heard in 2018 as one side of ‘The Summer Pack’), the thumping warning against technology that is ‘Algorhythm’ (a track that was sent to fans who attended his ‘This Is America’ tour) and the vocoder-heavy ‘Why Go To The Party’ (formerly used as an intro to the live favourite ‘Human Sacrifice’). There’s also the frantic and frenzied opener ‘Warlords’, which debuted during his 2019 Coachella headline set and feels like an extension of Göransson’s work on the Black Panther soundtrack.

The decision to supplement the new material on ‘Donald Glover Presents’ with tracks already familiar to Glover’s ardent fanbase places the project more in the category of mixtape rather than fully realised studio album territory — and, for all we know at the moment, that may be its creator’s intention.

But while the motivation behind the project, which continues to steer clear of the Gambino raps of old, remains unclear, the new tracks present a set of intriguing and well-executed contributions to Glover’s expanding discography.

The sing-song ‘Little Foot, Big Foot’ is built around a jangling guitar line and contains the kind of instructional, assonant lyrics that’ll make it a charming candidate for TikTok-pop fame (it would’ve also fit seamlessly into a dance sequence in Glover’s sun-kissed Guava Island film). Glover’s team-up with Ariana Grande on ‘Time’, meanwhile, would be a sure-fire hit should it ever be officially released, given the two stars’ effortless vocal link-up over synth-drums seemingly borrowed from Daft Punk.

Elsewhere, 21 Savage and SZA provide captivating features on the the neo funk-charged ‘Vibrate’ as Glover explores the Prince-level capabilities of his ever-improving vocal range, which he manages to break further new ground on with the arresting stand-out ‘Under The Sun’. It’s here that he throatily preaches above a soulful live band about “trying to put the spirit in your Yeezy Boosts” with the kind of gospel gusto regularly seen at Kanye West‘s ‘Sunday Service’ sessions — which Glover attended during last year’s Coachella.

The rolling groove of ‘Don’t Worry About Tomorrow (The Violence)’ is another highlight. Glover’s doomy proclamations about the violent and unjust aspects of society (“little boys playing ’round, shot down”) eventually subside for a more optimistic outlook for the future as Glover interacts with his young son Legend as they sweetly discuss what they each love.

His willingness to share such a candid moment on record is particularly interesting given Glover’s past tendency to keep his private life largely offline. This may be a sign of the star finally letting his guard down. Whatever his overall intentions are with ‘Donald Glover Presents’, it’s safe to say that Glover is finally ready to share what he’s created with the world — even if it is for just 12 hours at a time. 

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