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never has he put together something as perfectly formed and structured as this. It’s a journey from the inside out; it slowly unravels its form until the pieces are mere threads, floating in the breeze.
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What ultimately makes Similes so wonderful is that with every listen it seems to peel away the world around you, immersing you in its warmth, and for 43 minutes, it makes it so hard to believe that everything that might be wrong in your life actually matters at all.
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What’s happening with Similes is that it’s doing everything ambient music is supposed to do but is finding a very forward and fresh manner of going about it.
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With Similes, he has re-grounded himself using surprisingly un-ambient means: plaintive vocal turns, steady human percussion, traditional and discernible instrumentation
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What’s more notable, and important, though, are the continuities present here. Not just in instrumentation and mood, but also in those things’ presence in Cooper’s newest weapon: words.
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Simplistic, yet imaginative, Similes provides a hypnotic and surreal soundscape suitable for both daydreaming and nightdreaming.
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For those who have followed his recording career for any length of time, this change might seem jarring, a small revolution, but when his hushed baritone arrives on the scene in the lead track "Leaves Eclipse the Light," the development sounds completely natural.
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But it’s not float-away, background material; these songs poke and prod while clasping you close, the embrace warm but never completely comfortable.
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[The] expansive and slightly melancholy tone which has always been at the core of his music does feel slightly constrained when he tries to squeeze it into a verse chorus verse structure: the best moments on Similes come when he simply lets it wander free.
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Much of Similes is more standard, wordless Eluvium fare: the rumbling piano-based "In Culmination", the slow-burning "Nightmare 5" and "Bending Dream", and most of all the long, flickering closer "Cease to Know".
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Similes is, while a pretty record, oddly disjointed, a collection of pretty chord changes without an identity to give it life.
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Under The RadarHis mid-year gamble may not have paid off fully, but his textured worlds remain fruitful. [Winter 2010, p.68]
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UncutBy the time the 11-minute whalesong finale "Cease To Know" creeps to its overdue conclusion, the prevailing mood of impeccably tasteful introspection is choking. [May 2010, p.88]