Label: Southern Lord Format: CD,2LP
Boris love to surprise, and the opener “Flower Sun Rain” does just that. They go straight for Jpop in the form of a cover of a PYG song. My surprise came at All Tomorrow’s Parties seeing Earth, Boris, then SunnO))) and, reasonably enough, expecting a good wall to wall evening of drone and just not getting it: country doom, ballads, and on stage fighting in that order. I’m not wholly surprised by Boris, though. I’ve always had a feeling that there was a good singalong wave your lighter in the air ballad not too far from the surface. Of course, it gets the Boris treatment and pushed that bit too far. Like the other tracks on Smile it is totally over the top, a nice catchy ballad saturated with far too much wah and rock excess for its own good.
But don’t get the impression Smile is a collection of ballads. Boris have never been afraid to totally rock out, here they push it into a distinctly hair metal direction – again in a totally over the top kind of way. Its hair metal in the sense of holding a zippo up to someone wearing a gallon of hair spray and watching the resulting supernova. Ear piercing squeals, big buzzing riffs, and racing drums. Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley collaborates on a drone heavy track which has one of the most intense crescendos ever. Over all, Smile is characteristically Boris. They shamelessly rock at points and remain thoroughly excessive throughout.
-Alaric-
