This sounds like bloody Radiohead. Even the dude sings like him.
Don’t worry, I haven’t been living under a rock for the past year or so, I am fully aware that it is Thom Yorke singing, alongside Johnny Greenwood on guitar and other instruments, with Tom Skinner on drums and percussion (more regularly with Sons of Kemet). I’m just trying to get into that first listen headspace as if I’ve never heard of The Smile before.
Of course, this is their second LP in almost as many years, following on from 2022’s A Light For Attracting Attention. The follow-up seems to have appeared a little too quickly. Especially considering how long we are usually expected to wait for a Radiohead album.
One of the criticisms levelled at the debut was that it might as well have been Radiohead, when you consider the two main songwriters and creative forces in Radiohead are the two main songwriters and creative forces in The Smile.
To these ears, it sounded very much like the atmosphere of In Rainbows, an album I have failed to find the appeal in, despite so many describing it as Radiohead’s best LP which is quite laughable when you think about the albums that have come before it. (Oh come on, it is definitely not better then OK Computer or The Bends, Kid A either. You can argue the rest if you like, but no, just no)
This record is only eight tracks long which always feels like a bit of a swizz, in the old days we’d call that a Mini Album, and as such it feels a little like a collection of left overs from the debut or the result of songs written whilst touring or rehearsing that they felt like recording, because who knows when they’d be a room together again.
There are good bits on the album. Mainly the singles released so far, ‘Bending Hectic’, ‘Friend Of A Friend’ and the titular opening track ‘Wall of Eyes‘. Of the former song, the middle section is the most engaging. The end is weird. A very formulaic distorted barre chord progression comes in when the tension has been built. It’s all somewhat clunky and hackneyed. The latter is quite rough, quirky acoustic guitar, and dissipated percussion.
Thom and Johnny have earned the right to do whatever they like, but sometimes you wonder if they need the veto of the other Radiohead members to stop things just being released. With the possible exception of King of Limbs but you wonder how much other input there was on that record besides Thom and Johnny.
The highs don’t reach the highs from the debut LP, like ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’ , ‘Pan-a-vision‘ or ‘Free In The Knowledge’. It is as if Thom reverted to type and felt he couldn’t help but go avant garde and experimental as soon as possible. Too much guitar and bass, short sharp rock songs and regular time signatures last time. Let’s get bizarre again.
Rumour has it Radiohead are to reconvene soon. What will they think up this time?!?
