Boris - Smile (2008)

Boris - Smile (2008)*

*Japanese release reviewed here

Cacophonic? Yeah. But there's no reason to have expected differently from a Boris record. They're certainly no strangers to harsh noise, and some moments in Smile have them at the harshest that they've ever been, while other moments have them at their softest and most melodic, sometimes in the same song. But that's Boris for ya.

The album starts off with the excellent "メッセージ", a drum driven masterpiece that, other than "花･太陽･雨", is the easiest song on the ears. One writer compared this song to TV On The Radio if they were trying to be a Japanese noise rock band, which is so painfully accurate a comparison that there's no need for me to try to think of a more creative one. After "BUZZ-IN" has you scrambling for the volume switch, the also excellent "放て!" kicks in, which is a complete mess of a song and still manages to work well somehow. So well, in fact, that you'd have to go back to Lightning Bolt's 2005 album Hypermagic Mountain to find a better noise rock track. "となりのサターン" is somewhat of a departure for the band, as it introduces some electronic elements, the result of which almost sounds like a pop song. In an interview for Pitchfork, drummer Atsua spoke about the band having an admiration for Japanese glam rock bands of the 1990's. While I haven't heard any Japanese glam rock and he declined to name any names, I imagine that this song comes closest to paying any sort of homage. The rest of the album has a rather large sound that, due to lack of verbal ability and in depth knowledge of music history on my part, I'll compare to arena rock. It's stadium sized Boris, and though no individual moments stand out, the listening experience is every bit as intense as at Last -Feedbacker-.

Coming off a somewhat high profile release in Pink, the band probably recorded with more pressure and anticipation than they ever have. Most people would probably agree that this isn't their best record by far, but even so, it's still likely going to be one of the better releases of the year. If fellow Japanese noise/post rockers Envy made this exact album, it would've been the best thing they've ever recorded. Fans of the Boris will definitely dig this, but Smile is unlikely to win them any new ones. Their loss.

On a side note, the Japanese version's foam/plastic packaging is quite awesome, worth every penny of it's ridiculous import price.

Score: 7.5/10

"メッセージ"


"放て!"