The Smile
Wall of Eyes
XL
Frontman Thom Yorke, multi-instrumentalist and composer Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner are already returning with their recently launched project The Smile. The somber group has quickly turned into a main gig for the core Radiohead duo—that band’s last album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was released way back in 2016, but fans of their moody late-career experimental electronic output didn’t seem too disappointed by The Smile’s remarkable first effort in 2022, A Light for Attracting Attention.
The quick sequel, Wall of Eyes, is welcomed as well. For their debut, the trio continue to stay in Radiohead’s alt-rock pocket by saddling up with producer Nigel Godrich, who’s worked with the band for all of their records since 1995’s The Bends. For The Smile’s sophomore album, the production work is ably handled by Sam Petts-Davies, who was A Moon Shaped Pool’s sound engineer and who’s also worked with Frank Ocean and Red Hot Chili Peppers. These fresh eight tracks, recorded in The Smile’s native Oxford and London’s Abbey Road, slink by mostly without many highs or lows and possess a more live and ramshackle style.
Wall of Eyes starts off slow with the acoustic title track and its reverberating percussion and ghost-in-the-machine string section. “Teleharmonic” follows in the style of “Jigsaw Falling Into Place,” as it tumbles into a hole of chord sequences and slow-dance rhythms. The standout track is early single “Bending Hectic,” which finally arrives in the penultimate spot in the tracklisting. The eight-minute epic vacillates between soft contemplation and alternative-rock noise. Yorke sings “I’ve got these slings / I’ve got these arrows” during the theatrical chorus as the track builds and collapses in on itself with percussive supernovas.
Compressed between the opposing poles of Wall of Eyes are vocal and full-band experiments firmly ensconced within the In Rainbow and A Moon Shaped Pool aesthetic fields. “Under Our Pillows” and “Read the Room” are crystallized examples of Yorke’s vocals and Greenwood’s impeccable arrangements braiding together only to be atomized by Skinner’s continental-drift percussion. These are tracks that set a mood under tectonic pressures rather than grab you by the throat with their brilliance right from the jump. “Friend of a Friend” features saxophone from the American jazz composer Robert Stillman alongside a deluge of the orchestral strings courtesy of the London Contemporary Orchestra. The sax manages to float above this arrangement without calling too much attention to itself.
Yorke and Greenwood may be keeping their minds and instruments warm with Wall of Eyes until the next Radiohead LP, but The Smile is still nothing to sniff at no matter how you look at their output thus far. The Radiohead DNA is in these songs, and both albums never feel like diversions from the original form. What The Smile and its scruffy charm says about the return of Radiohead is still of no concern to longtime fans. Wall of Eyes stands on its own, just like A Light for Attracting Attention.
