Although The Smile has only released two albums, its three members are no musical newcomers.
Singer-songwriter Thom Yorke of Radiohead, along with his multi-instrumentalist-savant bandmate Jonny Greenwood, partnered with jazz drummer Tom Skinner in 2022 to produce the well-received debut record, A Light for Attracting Attention.
That album marked a newfound looseness for the three musicians in the middle of their careers. Yorke, particularly, seemed to delight in releasing new music with the support of Radiohead’s long-time label, XL Recordings, but without the immense critical pressure of doing so under the Radiohead name.
Touring with The Smile also allows Yorke to perform without expectations of revisiting 20-year-old fan favourites like “Creep” or “High and Dry” – a routine the reclusive singer is known to resent. The result of this clean slate was an inspired, if somewhat bloated, debut album.
The trio’s sophomore effort, Wall of Eyes, is in every sense an improvement from its predecessor. The record distills all the exploration of A Light into a lean eight tracks, allowing each song its own unique sound and character without feeling scattered or unfocused.
Sonically, Wall of Eyes explores the many sounds Radiohead explored through their nine records. This album has just about everything, from the angsty guitar tones, to the Krautrock-tinged electric and orchestral epics to the cold electronic grooves and quietly heart-wrenching piano ballads.
This is not to say that the album is a nostalgia fest for Radiohead fans. These sounds are explored in a way that eludes easy satisfaction. Harsh crackling and distortion often obscure the melodies of the heavier guitars. Elsewhere, eerie string sections seep in and overwhelm the tenderly crafted band arrangements.
Yorke and Greenwood pointedly acknowledge their past output and filter it through layers of cold melancholy — the result feels like looking back through a thick, wintry fog.
Wall of Eyes finds The Smile’s three members in top form. Despite many standouts from recent solo output, Yorke’s songwriting has not been so focused and poignant on a full-length record since the last Radiohead album, 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool.
On the new record, Yorke demonstrates his fully intact gift for lyricism in quiet, sorrowful songs (like the groovy and melancholic “Teleharmonic”) as well as in heavier ones (like “Read the Room,” which broils with climate angst).
The songwriter also demonstrates an impressive vocal range. While his voice is quiet and reserved on the first two tracks, “Read the Room” quickly indicates this wispiness is not just the result of age. Over dissonant, needling guitars, Yorke’s vocals are as soaring and powerful as on any iconic Radiohead track.
Both lyrically and vocally, the climactic eight-minute epic “Bending Hectic” is one of Yorke’s greatest achievements in years. It moves deftly and evocatively from quiet longing to explosive catharsis.
Greenwood’s instrumental work and orchestral arrangements are also fantastic. An accomplished composer who has written numerous excellent film scores, Wall of Eyes is the musician’s most successful attempt at fusing his orchestral interests with Yorke’s propensity for electronics and guitars. Unlike in some past collaborations, neither impulse overwhelms the other.
The breezy acoustic guitar groove slowly builds into an unsettling, dissonant string-backed melody in the opening title track. This clear, central contrast — light vs. dark, warm vs. cold — pervades the instrumental palette of the whole record.
The cool electric guitar backing on “Under Our Pillows” comes to a screeching halt and is replaced by a pulsing, anxiety-inducing groove. This is inverted on “I Quit,” where the eerie, glitchy opening builds to a gorgeous orchestral climax. Greenwood’s guitar and bass constantly teeter between melodic groove and harsh dissonance.
This careful instrumental work lends the sonically vast album its sense of cohesion. Regardless of the sound of a particular song, no moment of beauty lingers long before being twinged with darkness. Conversely, no moment of harshness and tension overstays its welcome before building into something lush and beautiful.
Skinner, the trio’s often-overlooked percussionist, plays no small role in the album’s success. The drummer from the now-defunct jazz collective Sons of Kemet — previously one of the best and brightest acts in contemporary jazz — holds together these frantic and ephemeral songs.
More so than its predecessor, which only contained a smattering of percussion-centric tracks, Wall of Eyes lives in odd grooves, uncommon time signatures and unpredictable rhythmic shifts. These characteristics give Skinner more room to explore, resulting in extremely crisp and inventive percussion that surpasses the demands of this challenging material.
Listeners expecting a “back-to-the-roots” approach or some other retread of past work might be disappointed with Wall of Eyes. Still, the new record reveals The Smile as much more than a dumping ground for Yorke material not worthy of a Radiohead record. Instead, the fresh start seems to have awoken a dormant vigour in its three members. Wall of Eyes is one of the best records of the young year and an indication that this new moniker is very worthy of exploration.
Featured image from the Wall of Eyes album cover by Stanley Donwood.
