I like to think of Attention Please as Boris’s main release for the year. If the other two are really good, this one’s something closer to brilliant. Typically when Boris release a “normal” album–something composed of distinct tracks, not a concept piece–there’s always a few tracks that fail to do much for me. Even Akuma No Uta and Smile had their down time. Attention Please does not. Every single track is wonderful. It’s also got the least in common of their 2011 works with anything they’ve released before, which, if you know Boris, is a sure sign that you’re in for something good.

Attention Please

The album is a melting pot of laid back songs like the opening track, dreamy shoegaze, and a sort of dirty pop sound that probably finds precedence in genres I’ve never explored. No matter which they’re tapping into at a given moment, they do it well. But it might be kind of pointless for me to just heap endless praise on this. If you’re already a fan of Boris then all you need to know is it’s really good. If you’re unfamiliar with them, then you’re hearing this all in a completely different state of mind than me. Let me give you a little background.

Boris – Track 3 off Vein, 2006

This is also Boris.

Party Boy

So you have to understand, half the fun of the album is hearing what they’re going to do next, and being astonished by how well they pull it off. Maybe this isn’t the best dance electro pop whateverthehell out there, I wouldn’t even know. It’s the fact that Boris is doing it that makes it so remarkable. At least to a point. I mean, a lot of these songs are still excellent by any standard.

Spoon

So enjoy it for its own sake, but also enjoy it because it is Boris. I think that’s all I have to say. Sorry if this isn’t really a “review” of the album. I’m too much of an infatuated fanboy to do much more than drool when I think about it. New Album has its ups and downs, and Heavy Rocks 2011 is somewhat inaccessible, but Attention Please is among their very best. Yeah, I said that about their 4-volume EP series and split with Torche in 2009. Yeah, I said that about Smile in 2008, and pretty much everything dating back to Flood, when I first heard them. But hell, why not. I hope I can keep saying it for years to come.

I’ll leave you with my favorite track off the album, which is kind of an unusual selection you might say, but calms me down in a way no band really has since Sigur Rós released ( ).

See You Next Week