The Smile
Wall Of Eyes
XL CD/DL/LP
Why do The Smile exist? Jonny Greenwood has done brilliant work as a composer for films. Thom Yorke has his solo work and Atoms For Peace. Is it just a way to play concerts without being asked to sing “Karma Police”?The group’s previous studio album and its accompanying live document offer songs that feel as half-sketched as those on the last two (or three, or four) Radiohead albums. Occasional post-punk outbursts tease the prospect of excitement, but middle aged ennui always wins out, and Tom Skinner, one of the most exciting drummers on the London jazz scene, is reduced to delivering somnambulistic half-remembered Ethio-jazz, like a library music version of Sault.
The title track lays a gentle Brazilian guitar strum over booming tympani. In the back, electronics crackle like distant firecrackers, and eventually strings come in. The music is gentle but ominous, and it’s hard to be sure which impression they want to linger. “Read The Room” and “Teleharmonic” are more conventional rock songs; the former in particular could have come off any 21st century Radiohead album. “Under Our Pillows” has a math rock feel to start, guitars sliding into place like the gears of a watch; in the song’s second half, a motorik bassline materialises, pumping the energy level up somewhat. “Friend Of A Friend” pulls from multiple early 1970s sources. Yorke’s near falsetto vocals bring to mind Elton John at his most mawkish and the orchestral arrangements amplify that tendency, but there’s some Bowie-ish theatricality and King Crimson-esque buzz around the edges.
In the final moments of the inexplicably eight minute “Bending Hectic” someone plugs in an electric guitar, an almost bafflingly aggressive gesture compared with everything before. And/but the minute all these songs end, they vanish from your mind’s ear as if they’d never existed. Again, why?