Customer Reviews

Sensuous

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It must be overwhelming for an artist like Cornelius to make a mega-masterpiece like "Point," and be expected to follow it up with something just as good, if not better.

And Cornelius manages to do pretty well with "Sensuous," his third full-length album, and his first in five long years. While it doesn't measure up to his last album, "Sensuous" does manage to be a charming, atmospheric little collection of quirky pop music.

It opens with the title track, an ambient little guitar melody that never goes anywhere much -- but it's redeemed by the staccato guitar and colourful sampling patchwork of "Fit Song." I suppose it's called that because Cornelius "fits" dozens of odd little sounds into the song, over the sputtery guitar and manic drums. It's wonderfully eccentric.

From there, Cornelius mingles electronic experimentation with sparkling sound effects and charming, almost childlike melodies. Hiccuping piano melodies and folky guitar, interrupted by digital blips and a CD spinning. Funky electronica that sparkles like a gem. Revving guitars that tumble into a heart-racing melody. Unstoppable "tick... tock" electropop. And a shimmering, soaring "Like A Rolling Stone," which sounds like wind chimes being diddled.

It takes a little while to listen to "Sensuous" objectively. The ghost of "Point" keeps looming over this album, and at first listen it's easy to think, "Oh, this isn't nearly as good as 'Point' was."

But as the album winds through soundscapes of the bizarre and beautiful, the real intent of "Sensuous" starts to come out. There are almost too many musical ideas crammed in here, with brief sparks of typical pop. Then Cornelius's offbeat jams move on and continue taking themselves apart.

The backbone of the music itself is plucked guitar, like a two-fingered street musician, but wrapped in heavy cocoons of shimmering synth, avant-garde stylings, and odd samples here and there. Cornelius's soft vocals bob in occasionally, usually singing some particular phrase ("Muuuuuu-siiiiiic...").

But let it be established that this isn't a GREAT album; the songs have little structure, and there's some songs that are definitely filler. It rides through on atmosphere and avant-garde beauty, and the complexities that begin to emerge after more than one listen -- feelings of drowsiness, sadness, complacency, and exuberance.

But even lesser Cornelius is better than most music, and while "Sensuous" may be his weakest work, it's still a beautiful piece of work. Definitely worth listening to -- just don't compare it to "Point."

It must be overwhelming for an artist like Cornelius to make a mega-masterpiece like "Point," and be expected to follow it up with something just as good, if not better.

And Cornelius manages to do pretty well with "Sensuous," his third full-length album, and his first in five long years. While it doesn't measure up to his last album, "Sensuous" does manage to be a charming, atmospheric little collection of quirky pop music.

It opens with the title track, an ambient little guitar melody that never goes anywhere much -- but it's redeemed by the staccato guitar and colourful sampling patchwork of "Fit Song." I suppose it's called that because Cornelius "fits" dozens of odd little sounds into the song, over the sputtery guitar and manic drums. It's wonderfully eccentric.

From there, Cornelius mingles electronic experimentation with sparkling sound effects and charming, almost childlike melodies. Hiccuping piano melodies and folky guitar, interrupted by digital blips and a CD spinning. Funky electronica that sparkles like a gem. Revving guitars that tumble into a heart-racing melody. Unstoppable "tick... tock" electropop. And a shimmering, soaring "Like A Rolling Stone," which sounds like wind chimes being diddled.

It takes a little while to listen to "Sensuous" objectively. The ghost of "Point" keeps looming over this album, and at first listen it's easy to think, "Oh, this isn't nearly as good as 'Point' was."

But as the album winds through soundscapes of the bizarre and beautiful, the real intent of "Sensuous" starts to come out. There are almost too many musical ideas crammed in here, with brief sparks of typical pop. Then Cornelius's offbeat jams move on and continue taking themselves apart.

The backbone of the music itself is plucked guitar, like a two-fingered street musician, but wrapped in heavy cocoons of shimmering synth, avant-garde stylings, and odd samples here and there. Cornelius's soft vocals bob in occasionally, usually singing some particular phrase ("Muuuuuu-siiiiiic...").

But let it be established that this isn't a GREAT album; the songs have little structure, and there's some songs that are definitely filler. It rides through on atmosphere and avant-garde beauty, and the complexities that begin to emerge after more than one listen -- feelings of drowsiness, sadness, complacency, and exuberance.

But even lesser Cornelius is better than most music, and while "Sensuous" may be his weakest work, it's still a beautiful piece of work. Definitely worth listening to -- just don't compare it to "Point."

Cornelius is BAD!!! This CD is so beautiful-- always inventive and sonically striking. You'll hear something new everytime you listen to it. A true pioneer-- dig this record.

Fantasma... oh man, fantasma. The album was stolen from me twice, lost once, purchase 4 times. I loved that damn disk to death. Point was amazing. It was different, it was new, at was the perfect company to so many things. I saw Cornelius twice supporting Point, and the shows blew me away. I'd never seen such visually ambitious performances in venues of that size.
I have been waiting for his new album for years, and I was expecting a lot. What you get though seems more like an addendum to "Point". Too many of the tracks are better suited as 30 second transitions, rather than full fledged 3 or 4 minute songs. Repetition is heavy and originality is hard to find.
It's not a bad album. It's pleasant, and a good listen with headphones. A few of the tracks are great... but for the most part the album just ends up a little too pedestrian.

It must be overwhelming for an artist like Cornelius to make a mega-masterpiece like "Point," and be expected to follow it up with something just as good, if not better.

And Cornelius manages to do pretty well with "Sensuous," his third full-length album, and his first in five long years. While it doesn't measure up to his last album, "Sensuous" does manage to be a charming, atmospheric little collection of quirky pop music.

It opens with the title track, an ambient little guitar melody that never goes anywhere much -- but it's redeemed by the staccato guitar and colourful sampling patchwork of "Fit Song." I suppose it's called that because Cornelius "fits" dozens of odd little sounds into the song, over the sputtery guitar and manic drums. It's wonderfully eccentric.

From there, Cornelius mingles electronic experimentation with sparkling sound effects and charming, almost childlike melodies. Hiccuping piano melodies and folky guitar, interrupted by digital blips and a CD spinning. Funky electronica that sparkles like a gem. Revving guitars that tumble into a heart-racing melody. Unstoppable "tick... tock" electropop. And a shimmering, soaring "Like A Rolling Stone," which sounds like wind chimes being diddled.

It takes a little while to listen to "Sensuous" objectively. The ghost of "Point" keeps looming over this album, and at first listen it's easy to think, "Oh, this isn't nearly as good as 'Point' was."

But as the album winds through soundscapes of the bizarre and beautiful, the real intent of "Sensuous" starts to come out. There are almost too many musical ideas crammed in here, with brief sparks of typical pop. Then Cornelius's offbeat jams move on and continue taking themselves apart.

The backbone of the music itself is plucked guitar, like a two-fingered street musician, but wrapped in heavy cocoons of shimmering synth, avant-garde stylings, and odd samples here and there. Cornelius's soft vocals bob in occasionally, usually singing some particular phrase ("Muuuuuu-siiiiiic...").

But let it be established that this isn't a GREAT album; the songs have little structure, and there's some songs that are definitely filler. It rides through on atmosphere and avant-garde beauty, and the complexities that begin to emerge after more than one listen -- feelings of drowsiness, sadness, complacency, and exuberance.

But even lesser Cornelius is better than most music, and while "Sensuous" may be his weakest work, it's still a beautiful piece of work. Definitely worth listening to -- just don't compare it to "Point."

I'm a big Cornelius fan. His album Point is one of my all time top 10 cds. Sensuous is a good album too. Not quite at Point's level, but enjoyable all the same. However, this CD and the replacement that Amazon has sent me has a formatting error between tracks 8 (Omstart) and 9 (Beep It) where the crossfade between tracks gets cut out and goes to silence for approx .5 seconds. This is really annoying. Since Amazon sells a few different versions of this CD online, I'll mention that the 2 sent to me are "imports" and were manufactured by the label "EverLoving" (note: "Import", as I am located in U.S.) I don't know if this same problem occurs with other label printings or versions of Sensuous. My overall rating of this CD is a 3 (i.e. 4 for Cornelius' tracks, 2 for formatting problem).

Cornelius' _Sensuous_ starts off with the title track, a simple guitar offset by its own reverberations until it finally decays. Its simplicity belies the rest of the album, a flood of cheeky Japanese pop. Mostly, it's been cut-up and made discontinuous, as in "Fit Song," the printer-inspired and -sampling "Toner," and the more rock-oriented "Gum." But "Breezin'" stays true to its name, a warm, easygoing trip, and "Wataridori" is a cleverly layered guitar exercise. "Omstart" similarly glides along, while "Music" comes as close as anything to pure pop. The album closes on the oscillating lullaby of "Sleep Warm," with an almost romantic vibe. Sensuous, indeed!

It must be overwhelming for an artist like Cornelius to make a mega-masterpiece like "Point," and be expected to follow it up with something just as good, if not better.

And Cornelius manages to do pretty well with "Sensuous," his third full-length album, and his first in five long years. While it doesn't measure up to his last album, "Sensuous" does manage to be a charming, atmospheric little collection of quirky pop music.

It opens with the title track, an ambient little guitar melody that never goes anywhere much -- but it's redeemed by the staccato guitar and colourful sampling patchwork of "Fit Song." I suppose it's called that because Cornelius "fits" dozens of odd little sounds into the song, over the sputtery guitar and manic drums. It's wonderfully eccentric.

From there, Cornelius mingles electronic experimentation with sparkling sound effects and charming, almost childlike melodies. Hiccuping piano melodies and folky guitar, interrupted by digital blips and a CD spinning. Funky electronica that sparkles like a gem. Revving guitars that tumble into a heart-racing melody. Unstoppable "tick... tock" electropop. And a shimmering, soaring "Like A Rolling Stone," which sounds like wind chimes being diddled.

It takes a little while to listen to "Sensuous" objectively. The ghost of "Point" keeps looming over this album, and at first listen it's easy to think, "Oh, this isn't nearly as good as 'Point' was."

But as the album winds through soundscapes of the bizarre and beautiful, the real intent of "Sensuous" starts to come out. There are almost too many musical ideas crammed in here, with brief sparks of typical pop. Then Cornelius's offbeat jams move on and continue taking themselves apart.

The backbone of the music itself is plucked guitar, like a two-fingered street musician, but wrapped in heavy cocoons of shimmering synth, avant-garde stylings, and odd samples here and there. Cornelius's soft vocals bob in occasionally, usually singing some particular phrase ("Muuuuuu-siiiiiic...").

But let it be established that this isn't a GREAT album; the songs have little structure, and there's some songs that are definitely filler. It rides through on atmosphere and avant-garde beauty, and the complexities that begin to emerge after more than one listen -- feelings of drowsiness, sadness, complacency, and exuberance.

But even lesser Cornelius is better than most music, and while "Sensuous" may be his weakest work, it's still a beautiful piece of work. Definitely worth listening to -- just don't compare it to "Point."

CORNELIUS is amazing, but Sensuous teases, yet does NOT please!

I'm a huge fan of both Fantasma, Point, & his AMAZING live shows that are a MUST SEE....but unfortunately, this album fell flat on its face.

A couple of good tracks, but too much gibberish noise and soul-less tracks.

Honestly, don't they just sound like a bunch of B-Sides from point????

Come on Keigo, I'll still buy the next album!

;-(

Point. Was. Dull. A mega-masterpiece?! Were we even listening to the same record? Fantasma, of course, WAS a mega-masterpiece. Sensuous (which, incidentally, is Keigo's FIFTH, not third, full-length LP; just because his first two, The First Question Award and 69/96: A Space Odyssey weren't released outside of Japan doesn't mean they didn't happen!) is the sound of Cornelius still running away from the sheer, sprawling ambition of Fantasma, but thankfully not repeating the frustratingly uneven sometimes-snoozefest that was Point. Sure, Point had a couple good tracks ("Point Of View Point" being by FAR the most interesting, but "Drop," "Fly," "I Hate Hate" and "Fly" are all pretty good as well), but much of it was forgetable atmospheric background music that didn't have much originality and certainly didn't merit the four year wait.

Sensuous doesn't merit a five year wait, either. The man gives new meaning to the word sloth. Why are all the modern geniuses in music (Flaming Lips come to mind) so lazy when it comes to their release rate? Let's see more albums quickly, people! Remember the work ethic of the 60s and 70s?

That brief rant aside, how about the music on Sensuous? Well, the first half is all aces. If it lived up to its first half, he would have made his most solid release, period. Because, glorious record that Fantasma was, that record was still a little too long. Sensuous is a good length (46 minutes or so), but there are a couple of skippers: The monotonous "Om Start" which never really goes anywhere; the requisite cover "Sleep Warm" which sounds like a Phoenix outtake (and not a good one); the gratingly monotonous "Like A Rolling Stone" (which, truth be told, is a track that, depending on your mood, you can have good listens to at times, but can just as often make you crack up as if to exclaim "was he serious?!").

What are the highlights? "Fit Song" is the best track, hands down, Mr. Oyomada has ever done. Very adventurous, very danceable, completely hypnotic and wholly compelling. "Breezin'" might just be his best single yet. "Music" is a summary of the entire Point LP in just four or so minutes, but kinda one ups the whole record during that short time! "Gum" and "Scum" are much more like Fantasma than anything he's done since that record, and have the feeling of tracks like "Count Five Or Six" and "Free Fall." "Beep It" is Cornelius' charmingly asexual sex song (!!), with lyrics like "dick, cheek, cock, tick tock, alarm clock, beep it, beep it" and "flick it, beat it" etc. We all know the man's a big Prince fan, but this song sounds endearingly like a Japanese man flipping through a Japanese-to-English sex dictionary and pointing at random words and saying them (with random references to alarm clocks thrown in for good measure). The song is ridiculously funky. Which brings me to my last point: Point attempted to have some sort of groove, and succeeded at times, but this album GROOVES. This is definitely Cornelius' sex album (and very self-consciously so, just look at the title!), and the thing has a very pulsating beat most of the time. The constant groove can give the misperception of a monotone album at first casual listen, but it grows and Grows and GROWS on you with each listen, getting better each time.

So, all in all, a much (MUCH) better album than Point, if not as good as Fantasma. The peaks of this record are his best, but still a bit uneven (dragging in the second half). Was it worth a five year wait? No. Is it jaw-droppingly different from Point, as Point was from Fantasma? No. My best friend put it best when he called it "Point, but inspired this time." Buy it if you're a fan, you'll probably dig it.