Stephen Wilkinson’s fifth Warp release is a spritely collection of balmy, surreal soundscapes in which he channels his fascination with nature, nostalgia and the type of strutting funk affiliated with brown nylon flares. His most intricate album to date, A Mineral Love is delicately constructed like tiny cells of a flower. A strange summer of love permeates the tipsy album opener Petals, and a light dose of bossa nova on C’est la Vie creates the sentiment of a soft sigh rather than a grand declaration, while quirks and oddities resound, such as the Ariel Pink-esque lo-fi lounge pop on the title track and the reimagined 70s kids’ show theme, Wren Tails. Other than the Gotye-sung melodrama of The Way You Talk, these short, sweet songs are without indulgence. Gasoline & Mirrors, featuring Wax Stag, is the album’s most sprawling moment. At almost six minutes long, it brims with glistening majesty and bizarre romance without coiling up in its own cleverness.
