Cornelius - Mellow Waves

Hooray! 10 years after his last album Sensuous, Japanese producer and multi instrumentalist Keigo Oyamada is back with some more dreamy pop perfection. As you can probably tell from the album title this is Cornelius in full on mellow mode (if such a thing can exist?). There's no crashing bangers like Gum, Count Five Or Six or Freefall on here, this is a chill zone and if you don't like it,  well you can do whatever you want because I'm in a blissful trance and I probably won't even notice. There's always been a hypnotic quality to Oyamada's songs, but by focusing on the mellow and leaving out the more garage rock side of his sound, this album manages to soothe and relax you whilst retaining those classic Cornelius trademarks - gorgeous melodies, dreamlike vocals and precision production.  That's not to say it's not fun. From the computer vocals and driving rhythm of Helix/Spiral to the bonkers guitar solo in Sometime/Someplace there are moments of craziness, but with other songs such as In A Dream, Mellow Yellow Feel and Surfing On Mind Wave Pt 2 (the latter of which sounds like floating through space and discovering a new beach planet), you know what territory you're in for the most part. Standout tracks If You Were Here and The Rain Song share similarities with their slow, rhythmic drums and hypnotic, tumbling guitar picking. The only slight misstep on the album is the closer Crépuscule, whose instrumental guitar twiddling soothed me to the point of nodding off, but maybe that was a conscious decision on Cornelius' part, it doesn't get more mellow than being asleep. If you're looking for a happy, chilled out summer then this should definitely make it into your rotation. The perfect accompaniment to lazing in the sunshine and gazing at the starlight.