Cornelius - Mellow Waves (2017)

I dunno if it's because it wasn't released stateside yet or because Cornelius's star has faded in the last decade or so. The album is very good.

It's pretty good, based on my first listen. I got it from CD Japan along with the new DJ Krush last week. His use of stereo is dazzling, but it also feels like sleight-of-hand after a while -- for me the most fun part about this record is counting time, some of the stuff is super-cerebral. Amazing last track.

think it might be his best-sounding album overall. there's a weird trick where the guitars ring off the walls but all the reverb from the drums and cymbals are clipped off. actually the one thing it reminds me of is Zammuto (from The Books), who produces his records the same way. like you can tell every element was worked on in isolation and then assembled into what you get here. which of course is how he's been making music for two decades now, but the presence of actual songs does make it more interesting this go around.

Listening to this now.

Is Paddy McAloon given a writing credit on "In a Dream?" Because it's essentially "Appetite."

He ranked Steve McQueen #2 on his list of 10 albums everyone needs to hear, so it's absolutely intentional I guess.

http://www.vinylmeplease.com/magazine/cornelius-on-the-10-albums-everyone-needs-to-hear/

i feel that list

Is Paddy McAloon given a writing credit on "In a Dream?" Because it's essentially "Appetite."

I came on here to say the same thing. It's uncanny.

Only on my first listen but I'm really enjoying this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJA3AeJS9g

saw him 10 years ago - wound up getting right up to the front so I could see them up close, might have been one of the most impressive shows I've ever seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJGNc5VKIFM

incredible new video directed by Keigo for the 7" track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpU5csz-kk

LP & cassettes pre-orders shipping now

I found this album nice enough but I keep forgetting it exists tbh

yea agreed. it's very good though

It's pretty bland and the most predictable thing he could have done at this point. All his other albums are better. The various collaborations and things he's done over the past few years are much more enjoyable.

Yes, especially that salyuxsalyu thing

idk I think it's better than his first two and Sensuous. it's probably his least "interesting" disc but it sounds great. I do kinda wish there was one more good single on it though

and yeah the salyu x salyu disc ruled, that one really got slept on

yeah it's a bit samey but then gain he made Fantasma 20 years ago! and 69/96 years before that. can't do genre hopping forever.

still a really good album. i can't wait to hear it on vinyl. "The Rain Song" is probably my favorite from this

Yeah despite what I posted I'd still like to get a physical copy of it. CD or vinyl whatever. Cassette would be great.

saw him 10 years ago - wound up getting right up to the front so I could see them up close, might have been one of the most impressive shows I've ever seen

I wish there were more hooks... or any hooks for that matter

Point has a very similar sound but the feel is radically different, and better.

"Tone Twilight Zone" is a very effective interlude but I don't want to hear 45 minutes of it.

the first three tracks were a great development on the Point sound but the rest is fairly uninteresting. i haven't come back to it much at all

it's not melodically rich but he's developed a superb sense of sound design (prob. why he works best in collaboration!)

This "sound design" thing needs to be addressed though. WTF is it supposed to mean? Is he more of a "sound designer" than Metallica, Brian Eno, Billy Childish, Jim Thirwell or literally anyone else who makes a track where a specific philosophy re. the sound is a strong guiding motive? Feels like this has become a genre like "indie" which is now disconnected from the actual definition of the word. Applied to Cornelius, "sound design" seems like a portentous way to describe "Crises"-era Mike Oldfield-inspired production paired with a rather narrow palate of chimes, creaks, rimshots etc (with lots of dramatic stereo effects of course.) As a solo artist, Cornelius has painted himself into a corner with this stuff.

he does one thing and he does it extremely well. if lack of variety is a bad thing in a listener's book, cornelius will never be more than a second rate talent at best. personally i'm not bothered about his limitations.

He only does one thing NOW. His mid-late 90s stuff was all over the place. It's disappointing how narrow his range has ended up.

i don't get it, is he supposed to somehow break the rule that every musician from the dawn of time has succumbed to? people get old, they get conservative. artists's experimental bent naturally becomes more refined with time. compared Bob Dylan 1966 to 1986. what a slacker, right. painted himself into a corner. Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday" in 1965 and twenty years later he made Give My Regards to Broad Street.

hey I'm just saying what everyone else here seems to be dancing around - that it's quite a boring album - a disappointment. No doubt a month after Give My Regards To Broad Street came out lots of McCartney fans were observing that the hype had mysteriously died and that they weren't returning to the album much, despite the awesome sound design.

Conservative and refined doesn't have to lead to boring.

i'm listening to it more than i am to a lot of the other 2017 records i liked... but maybe i am a boring person!

i also don't think that "mellow waves" is any more stylistically limited as an album than "fantasma" was, once you strip away all of the stuff he nicked from other people. i mean maybe mellow waves would be a better album if he put more effort into ripping off sampha or daniel caesar but it doesn't quite seem like a fair criticism to make?

i think the eno point of reference is an interesting one. i've found pretty much everything eno's done since "my squelchy life" to be really tediously dull, but i haven't had that experience with cornelius. chacun à son goût i guess?

feel like i agree that "it's boring" but it doesn't matter, in fact, i like it. the album is called Mellow Waves so i would just change" boring" to "mellow".

fwiw this year i finally started listening in earnest to Steely Dan and soft rock for the first time in my life, maybe i am turning in a boring old fart lol. if i want to blow my brains out i can always thrown on "Ball In-Kick Off" this stuff will do nicely

I'd take an entire album of that guitar solo on "If You're Here." It's a good record, but there are too many filler tracks, which I'll admit he's always seemed fond of, and not enough content.

the guitar solo on if you're here is one of my favourite things he's done

my vinyl copy showed up friday, im listening this morning. it's really good hangover music

Sounding very nice on my stereo, glad I don't have to stream it anymore. I forgot how much "In a Dream" sounds like Prefab Sprout's "Appetite."

they are on tour right now. saw some cool photos of them playing in Mexico a few days ago. also this!

https://i.imgur.com/jks8CZn.png

got to say a Mac Demarco/Cornelius split EP would be a sweet thing to hear.

there's also Constellations of Music, which is basically CM5 but does contain a few original tracks on it (including two by salyu x salyu, one of which is a great cover of "Hammond Song")

wow, this "hammond song" cover!!

otoh, yeah, this new cornelius album is pretty boring, huh? wish he'd just work with salyu more instead tbh. there's some cool stuff on here but the laid back arrangements make his weak vox stick out kinda uncomfortably imo.

how's the live show these days?

Saw them at the 930 club in DC and loved the video/visuals and much of the music (the art-pop with rhythmic beat cuts more than the 2 that sounded kinda metalcore0

http://thequietus.com/articles/23926-cornelius-interview-favourite-albums

He did another top album list...Smiths, Prefab Sprout, Donovan, D'angelo, Jeff Phelps and more

listened to (s)oun(d)beams for the first time in a while today and it's still excellent, one of his best works & i really hope there's more salyu x salyu someday. definitely better than Mellow Waves

I forget where I saw this first, but I looked it up again after seeing the thread and think this is new?

http://www.hmv.co.jp/newsdetail/article/1802201001/

https://www.npr.org/event/music/593894464/cornelius-tiny-desk-concert

ah, cool stuff, thanks for the link

xxp - that must be a second volume of music from the NHK Design Ah show. I have the first disc and it's pretty good - even more granular and stripped back than Sensuous but actually a bit better than that album. because at least the concept is clear.

he looks so young

has anyone seen him on the latest tour? bummed i missed the sf show.

xp yeah wtf has he been sealed in a box these last 12 years

nm just read review upthread and watched the npr thing :D

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/design-a-2/1357728295

new nhk design is out

nowhere to download if you're not in Japan, though... not as far as I can tell. lotsa samples at the link.