After a mysterious release-then-un-release on March 15, Donald Glover has officially unveiled his new album titled, appropriately, 03.15.20. But there’s a twist that makes it all the more relevant to the world’s current situation with the novel coronavirus.
The 03.15.20 album comes in two versions: One is a standard, track-by-track version that you would expect from a typical album release, while the second version is a full, uninterrupted stream. The latter version—released under the artist name “Donald Glover Presents”—seems to call for the type of communal listening where one can hit play on the “song” and let it stream in full without having to worry about the album sequence getting messed with, adding other songs in between the tracks or ads depending on what streaming service someone is using. At a time when so many people are practicing social distancing and quarantining at home due to concerns over the coronavirus, this streaming idea couldn’t have come at more appropriate time.
This marks the artist’s first studio album since 2016’s Awaken, My Love! and his first under the Wolf+Rothstein/RCA Records banner. Donald Glover previously announced plans to retire his Childish Gambino alias at some point, but reassured fans he was not abandoning music.
