Donald Glover Brings Childish Gambino to an End With Final Album ‘Bando Stone & the New World’ f/ Yeat, Chlöe, and More

Yeat, Chlöe, Flo Milli, and more are featured on the new album, billed as a soundtrack to a Glover-starring film of the same name.

This is the last time I’ll be able to say this, so let’s make a point to fully take in the moment: Childish Gambino has a new album out.

Indeed, Bando Stone & the New World has been consistently described throughout its rollout as the final album Donald Glover will release under his long-time musical moniker. The 17-track project, billed as a soundtrack to a Glover-starring Bando Stone film, is the first Gambino album since 2020’s 3.15.20, which was tweaked and reissued earlier this year under a new title, Atavista.

“It’s not fulfilling. And I just felt like I didn’t need to build in this way anymore,” Glover, 40, told Reggie Ugwu of the New York Times this week when elaborating on his decision to retire the Gambino name. According to Glover, his time with Glassnote Records saw him experiencing “stress dreams” related to how the label was handling his album rollouts.

Like Atavista, the new (and final) album is released under RCA. Chlöe, Amaarae, Flo Milli, Jorja Smith, Amaara, Yeat, Fousheé, Khruangbin, and Glover’s son Legend all show up to help tell the larger Bando Stone story, available here. The distorted guitar-driven lead single “Lithonia,” released earlier this month, hinted at the conceptual nature of the project and saw DG exploring fresh sonic ground.

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Next month, fans will have a chance to take in songs from Bando Stone, as well as (presumably, at least) highlights from across the Gambino catalog, on the AEG-backed New World Tour. A kickoff show at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on Aug. 11 is followed by stops in Kansas City, Toronto, Boston, Brooklyn, Nashville, Atlanta, and elsewhere through February of next year. See a full list of dates here.