Boredoms: Super Are

Some poor former A&R guy over at Reprise is probably homeless and penniless right now, shaking his head and saying, "I could have sworn Boredoms would be the next big thing." That individual, fictitious or not, homeless or otherwise, is close to right: Boredoms should be the next big thing, but it never will be; in fact, it never crosses the band's collective mind that commercial success would be at all desirable. Super Are is packed with larger-than-life sounds, big riffs, and trance-inducing rhythms, keeping all the elements in place but gleefully refusing to put them in the "right" order. The first song, "Super You," is one minute of shrill guitar sounds followed by six minutes of bombastic guitar and drum crescendos; it sounds like a prolonged introduction to the greatest rock song never written. Some songs, such as "Super Coming," revolve around xtraordinarily repetitive, airy psychedelic sounds that border on tribal, recalling mid-period Can, while others get derailed from this hypnotic state by multi-instrumentalist Yamatsuka Eye's trademark shrieks and yips or bursts of electronic noise. Super Are is fun and playful, at times even beautiful, though it does nothing to dispel the mystery of how Boredoms continues to enjoy major-label distribution. God bless who ever put 'em there, and God bless whoever keeps 'em there.