Attention Please

Heavy Rocks arrives in the marketplace along with Attention Please, a lower-key companion album that showcases the coolly resigned singing of lead guitarist Wata. Surprised? Don't be.

Unlike previous output, the ten tracks on Attention Please are slick, synthesized, almost club-ready vamps (or at least that seems to be their aspiration). The affect may be intentional but for the most part I found them to be drowsy, forgettable, head-nodding throwaways with at least a passable amount of textural variety but very little in the way of memorable song-writing.

It's poppy, it's quirky, but it's also shrouded in forebodingness and unease. When the group achieves that sort of balance, AttentionPlease is close to perfect. The album fails when there is too much dance, too much party.

Attention Please is the first to feature just guitarist Wata on vocals. Her breathlessly beautiful singing style calls to mind classic Stereolab on the title track and one of My Bloody Valentine's more sublime moments on 'Hope'.

Here, the band focuses on building atmosphere and creating interesting soundscapes rather than high-volume noise. This is rare: quiet Boris.

Attention Please could not be further away from Heavy Rocks. The album is characterized by elegant violin, delicate vocals and dreamy guitar distortion.

Attention Please makes them into something more profound: an often puzzling albeit enthralling and super-malleable "fuck you" to the safety of classification.

The USP of Attention Please lies in Wata, Boris' lead guitarist: she sings on each of the album's ten songs, the first time a Boris full-length has been entirely female-voiced.

For anyone bored of being bored of being bored, strap this one on and ride away.

Attention Please, with its quieter strangeness and its refusal to play down the middle where the guitar and drums will go -- in effect, its skirting around heavy music -- is a much more interesting place for the band to go.

It doesn't always hold the attention that its title demands, but it makes for a sweet, icy dessert after Heavy Rocks' rib-sticking meatiness.

Farther into the cosmos is sister record Attention Please, the least "metal" thing the band have released to date, which focuses on icy rhythms and smoky moods, as if they're slinking up alongside the xx.

Stunning.

In sum, Attention Please, with Wata's haunting vocals at the fore, is the most unusual and easily approachable recording on Boris' shelf, if not its best.

Attention Please at least offers something fresh for Boris.

Affirms that Boris can bench-press myriad weighty sub-genres in their sleep. [Aug. 2011, p. 92]

Attention Please is more of a shuffle than a giant leap forward, leaving the feeling that we've been here before. [Jul 2011, p.44]

Attention Please sits at the softer end of the spectrum, a melodic set showcasing the sultry vocals of guitarist Wata. [Jul 2011, p.79]