Mellow Waves (CD)

Cornelius

Currently Unavailable

$18.98

SHIPS FREE in U.S.

Amoeba Review

09/07/2020

As the nostalgia for the '90s seems to have no end in sight and the new love of Japanese culture seeping into all corners of the web, the resurgence of Japanese pop of the '90s, and in particular the Shibuya style sound of the mid-90s, all seems a little overdue. For a while, acts like Pizzicato Five, Buffalo Daughter and Cibo Matto seemed to be making major strides as they got signed up by labels like Matador and Grand Royal. This style of music felt like a reaction to the cynicism and self-styled roughness of the grunge and noise rock movement of the early-90s. Instead of shredding guitars and thumping drums, there was this melodic nostalgic for pop hits of the '60s with sounds that sounded more like Burt Bacharach than Eddie Vedder. But the greatest and most influential was Cornelius, who seemed to single handedly reinvent the art pop sound of the '90s as it moved into the 2000s. Cornelius took those lessons of melodic '60s pop and instead applied it to the influence of electronica of that era to create songs that left you with the feeling of future shock! His first album in over a decade still retains this nostalgic feeling of dusty, unplayed jazz fusion records with a uniquely Japanese pop pizazz that's startling. The opener, "If You're Here" feels both like classic Cornelius with the glitched-out rhythm mixed with a type of neo-soul vibe. It's almost too off-kilter to be considered wacky or sexy, but there's something in the sound that's mysterious and bizarre and makes the mellow six-minute track take you on a hypnotic journey. But it's the perfect appetizer for the album which gives you the illusion of being a relaxing and breezy listen, but covertly makes lots of crazy and weird choices. "In A Dream" continues this sense as it starts off with a bouncy melody filled with heavy synths and Cornelius's quiet voice. But the song makes enough strange diversions and even some techno-psychedelia that makes everything just a little bit more unexpected. Though Cornelius is less sonically aggressive in 2018 as he was in 1997, this is the perfect antidote to the blistering world we've been stuck in the last few years. It's a nice reminder that music can still be fun and airy.