Radiohead side project The Smile enthral with third album – A second in 9 months.
When Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner announced a new project in 2021 under the name of The Smile, while doubt arose at the time, it makes all the more sense considering what music they’ve managed to send out. With unwanted heat on Radiohead‘s next chapter (considering they hadn’t released anything since 2016’s Moon Shaped Pool), it seemed plausible to careen away from the poisoned chalice of their main hustle and enter new territory without any connotations to what comes out the writing room.
Of course, while under a new name and new ideas, the trio are still unmistakably a Radiohead spin-off in more ways than one; as they play to one another’s strengths. The ever-compelling dissonance and emotive story-writing is ever-present with Yorke’s aching vocals leading the all-too-familiar assembly line.
It’s still firmly within the territories of alternative/indie too with the beautiful piano melody lines and orchestral complexities mixed in. But it’s not without its perturbation. Yorke still manages to make you feel like you’re teetering on the edge of a cliff edge, despite the soaring highs on the tracks making you believe you’re somewhere else. It’s not a smile in the “traditional way”, it’s the more the smile the guy gives to you who lies everyday.
The trio return this time around with their third iteration, Cutouts – following their highly-lauded Wall of Eyes earlier in the year which many have set their mark down as being one of the best albums of the year. Now as the trio hit album number three, Cutouts – with its layers upon layers – confirms to us that this was more than just a passion project to pass the time. Turns out that this is just remarkable songwriters who are enjoying writing music more than ever. It’s certainly a freeing feeling with no Radiohead stigmatism attached. It’s its own entity and that makes it even better.
Across 10 tracks that were first debuted during The Smile‘s UK tour in March, Cutouts is another side to The Smile‘s subtle ubiquity with Greenwood’s incessant noodling and Skinner’s tricky grooves. While it’s a mutual agreement that Cutouts remains in the shadow of their giant predecessor earlier in the year, it’s still a solidly tight album that would hold up from any other artist release as a standalone for the full year.
The scatty Zero Sum is this record at its grooviest while Foreign Spies plays out a scintillating soar of synths. Instant Psalms introduces the new depth with a string arrangement from the London Contemporary, Eyes & Mouth meanwhile, brings more grooves enough to shake a stick at. Or two in Skinner’s case. We’re brought back into the spheres of King of Limbs-era from Radiohead with Don’t Get Me Started – tense synth throbs with Yorke’s falsetto. A tale old as time patterning your music.
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