Everloving
2006
Sensuous
About This Album
Even sleeker and more stylized than Point, Sensuous lives up to its title, with intricate textures and lush atmospheres that are almost tangible, and melodies that evoke visions of lines stretching off into the horizon or tunneling into infinite spirals. However, this is also Keigo Oyamada's most thematic and conceptual Cornelius album, concentrating on just a few well-chosen elements -- wind chimes, delicate acoustic guitars, precise electric ones, fuzzy '80s synths, and layers of vocals -- and either elongating them to the point of no return or chopping them into pointillistic pieces. With all of its lines, loops, and fragments, at times Sensuous feels more like an ever-changing sonic painting than an album of individual songs, a concept brilliantly illustrated by the flowing paint on the album's cover. But no matter how abstractly Oyamada splashes these sounds from track to track, they always stay accessible, and the inherent tension in how he turns poppy sounds into high-concept compositions makes them even more fascinating. Songs like "Breezin'" -- which floats by on aptly airy synths and wind chimes -- and "Wataridori," an addictive exploration of call-and-response with rubbery basslines and loping guitars, take Point's forays into this approach to its logical yet loopy end.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,5,9 and 12)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.