Mellow Yellow (album) previously illustrated his infatuation with an ability to define the mid-sixties pop music scene. On "Mellow Yellow" this is still evident in "Sunny South Kensington", "Museum" (originally recorded for the "Sunshine Superman album" and rerecorded for "Mellow Yellow") and the title track, but is also tempered with world-weary observations of that scene ("Young Girl Blues"). The contractual problems that prevented the release of Donovan's music in the UK led him to write such songs as the resigned "Writer in the Sun", where he contemplates the possibility of his own forced retirement from the music industry at the age of 20.
Mellow Waves project. One track, "Mellow Yellow Feel", dates back to 2012. Lyrics for two of the album's songs, "If You're Here" and "Dear Future Person", were written by Shintaro Sakamoto. Another track, "The Spell of a Vanishing Loveliness" was written by Miki Berenyi, who Oyamada learned a decade earlier was a distant relative. Distinct sounds have been used to represent sonic themes on previous Cornelius albums—a glass wind chime for "Sensuous", and water for 2001's "Point". Oyamada said the tremolo served a similar function on "Mellow Waves", likening the sound to that of a continuous wave. Similarly, Oyamada chose the album's