Mellow Waves

Cornelius - Mellow Waves
Critic Score
Based on 16 reviews
2017 Ratings: #465 / 940
User Score
Based on 76 ratings
2017 Rank: #365
Liked by 1 person
July 21, 2017 / Release Date
LP / Format
Rostrum / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

83
Pretty Much Amazing

Overall, Mellow Waves sits nicely in Cornelius’ discography. Not as scene as Fantasma or exploratory as Point. This record uses the studio magic in a more utilitarian way — to complete the songs rather than create them.

80
Under the Radar
Twenty years removed from Cornelius' masterpiece, what it lacks in frenetic playfulness it makes up in melody and orchestration.
80
The Line of Best Fit

Mellow Waves is the sound of an artist reaching a conclusion, one that is content with its place in music history as it is hopeful of the future.

80
God Is in the TV

This mixture of styles on an album could be fatally flawed ambition in lesser hands, yet he pulls it off with aplomb, a master craftsman.

77
Pitchfork

Known for the wild, kaleidoscopic pastiche of 1997’s Fantasma, Oyamada’s Cornelius continues to specialize in creating moments of startling fun, even if his sonic palette isn’t always as show-offy and sugar-coated as it once was.

75
A.V. Club

Cornelius may not be the second coming of Brian Wilson, as the press proclaimed back on Fantasma’s release, but he’s a sonic curator and composer of rare gifts. Don’t let the lightness of Mellow Waves fool you; its pleasures are substantive and lingering.

70
Tiny Mix Tapes

Mellow Waves might be a strange bedfellow for the seminal albums of the year so far, but it’s a nonetheless unassumingly essential artifact.

70
PopMatters

Although the sounds might be a bit dulled to the seasoned listener after 20 years of similar excursions, there are a few cuts here that deserve to be held up as classics in this sun-dappled sub-genre.

70
Northern Transmissions

This is an exploration of sounds, thoughts and feelings; an eclectic array of the variety of experiences that music can offer.

60
Drowned in Sound
It’s dreamy and creates a sense of fluid space, caught between energetic krautrock style and something more meditative. Maybe that’s just pop music for you, but I found myself craving the guitar riffs to break up the saccharine of the continual use of bleepy synthesiser.
60
Exclaim!

Oyamada's work as Cornelius over the past 20 years has defied genre, logic and time; on Mellow Waves, it sounds like he's on cruise control.

60
The Independent

It’s the overall cool/warm Tropicalismo tone that’s most engaging about Mellow Waves, established through the light accretion of sparse piano, percussion, synth and guitar parts supporting his soft vocal on opener “If You’re Here”.

tha138
72

More than a decade after his latest album, Keigo Oyamada is back, wiser but always cool, to conduct his fascinating version of mellowness, by using his magic wand so skillfully.

Mr_Jaiva
87

Sensitive voice. Fun and impeccable mix of sound.

nachocasla
80

haciendo cuentas mientras escucho el disco. subdivisiones y sub-subdiviciones. GENial. 80/100

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Track List

  1. If You're Here
  2. Sometime / Someplace
  3. Dear Future Person
  4. Surfing On Mind Wave, Pt. 2
  5. In a Dream
  6. Helix / Spiral
  7. Mellow Yellow Feel
  8. The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness
  9. The Rain Song
  10. Crépuscule

Year End Lists

#83/Piccadilly Records
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Added on: May 12, 2017