The Smile

 

 

 

The Smile project, whose name is taken from the title a poem by the British poet and writer Ted Hughes, was born during the pandemic, when it was difficult to make music together. Greenwood recalls, “We didn't have much time, but we just wanted to finish some songs together. It's been very stop-start, but it's felt a happy way to make music.” Radiohead drummer Philip Selway comments that it's healthy for the members to explore different projects and "see what these other musical voices can do with your ideas."

 

As mentioned, The Smile consists of the creative core of the cult band Radiohead - Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keyboards), as well as Tom Skinner, the drummer and percussionist of various projects, including the jazz band Sons of Kemet.

 

The Smile made their debut in a surprise performance for streaming of the Glastonbury Festival in May 2021, followed by 3 more concerts in London. In the spring of 2022, the band's debut album "A Light For Attracting Attention" was released, produced by Radiohead's long-term producer Nigel Godrich. Considering the talent of Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, it is no surprise that this album was very well received by both the critics and the audience, reaching number 5 in the UK album chart. You Will Never Work in Television Again was released as the lead single in January 2022. It was later followed by The Smoke, Screening on the Surface, Pana-vision, Free in the Knowledge and Thin Thing.

 

Some critics call The Smile the reincarnation of Radiohead, a new facet that fuses bits and pieces of post-punk, progressive rock, afrobeat and neo-electronica. A Pitchfork reviewer opined that the album: "sounds more like a proper Radiohead album than any of the numerous side projects the band’s members have done on their own." Rolling Stone, on the other hand, rates it as "a lower-stakes, jammy album with some of their most straightforward songs in years." Most critics, however, immediately agree that the side project label allows Radiohead's creative tandem Yorke-Greenwood to write much more open and relaxed material: "an opportunity to work on some tunes without all the pressure of being Radiohead’s Lennon and McCartney or, maybe more accurately, Waters and Gilmour — likely to the chagrin of group’s other three members, since “A Light for Attracting Attention” contains some of the songwriters’ most easily enjoyable music in years.”

 

In the spring and summer of 2022, The Smile went on concert tours in Europe and North America, as well as performed at some festivals. The best known of them are the Montreux Jazz Festival and the Pitchfork Music Festival.

 

In the spring of 2023, the members of The Smile revealed that they started writing new material. The first single Bending Hectic was released on June 20 and features the strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Stereogum describes the track as an “epic that starts out soft and quiet and builds into a splendorous stomping beast."  

The Smile announced their second album, “Wall of Eyes”, on November 13, alongside another single, "Wall of Eyes", with a music video directed by award-winning filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, aka PTA. The album was produced by Sam Petts-Davies and is set for release on 26 January 2024.  

 

 

More info:

https://www.facebook.com/LTipsAgencyLatvia  

 

Videos:

Bending Hectic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM0MafOVrv8  

Thin Thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOK92tq2a00  

Wall of Eyes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsqqjOxEuAg