Illustration card titled "Where the Rainbow Ends, Night in the Dragon Wood" published by C.W. Faulkner, c. 1920
I've been on the fence about Japanese experimental-metal band Boris for a while now - on the one hand, I don't really listen to metal and it seems like Boris might rock a little too hard for my delicate sensibilities. On the other hand, though, I've been very impressed with some of their more accessible songs, and video clips I've seen of them have blown me away, particularly performances by the band's female guitarist Wata. So, when I heard that Boris had two new albums, a "heavy" album and a "pop" album featuring songs all sung by Wata, I decided to take a chance on the later. It's an interesting album but, oddly, I think that my problem with it may be that it doesn't rock enough. Not what I expected.
Attention Please begins with its title track, a drone-rock-style song that features Wata singing the title phrase in English over muted guitar riffs. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, and it works as a lead-in for two of the album's more rocking tracks, "Hope" and "Party Boy". These songs have a heavy-alt-rock sound, but the motorik-style beats of these songs prevent them from sounding even vaguely metal. In the middle section of the album, however, almost-ambient drone tracks like "See You Next Week" and "You" dominate the album's mood. As much as I like Wata's vocals on these tracks, I wish she'd give us some real riffage as well. The album has one more real rock song toward the end, "Spoon", but overall the album comes across as unfocused. Boris is a band that's never reluctant to try new things or strike out in new directions, and there are some really cool things about Attention Please, but I think I need to hear one of their albums that sticks closer to their core competency.
"Hope" by Boris
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