The Smile review, Cutouts: Expansive, brilliant and surprisingly fun
Reports of Radiohead’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Earlier this month, bassist Colin Greenwood caused a minor stir when he confirmed that the Oxford-formed rock band had been rehearsing some old songs in the studio. Cue speculation over an “Oasis-style” reunion, overlooking the fact that unlike the warring Gallagher brothers, Radiohead never broke up.
Instead, its five members have been keeping themselves busy with various side projects since the release of their last album, 2016’s superb break-from-form A Moon Shaped Pool. One such venture is The Smile, formed by frontman Thom Yorke and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood, alongside Sons of Kemet co-founder/drummer Tom Skinner.
Recorded during the same period as The Smile’s second album, Cutouts is only marginally longer than its predecessor, but it manages to feel exponentially expansive at just 10 tracks. Opener “Foreign Spies” unfurls slowly like the fronds of a fern; chime-like synths blooming around Yorke’s eerie croon. Flurries of strings from the London Contemporary Orchestra herald its neighbour, “Instant Psalm”, with earthy guitar tones redolent of OK Computer’s “No Surprises” – a lullaby for the trees.
Cutouts is no snooze-fest, however. Yorke and Greenwood’s restless creativity transpires in the record’s off-kilter energy. “Zero Sum” jolts listeners out of any complacency with particularly deft noodling from Greenwood, over which Yorke sings in a lopsided half-rap. “Colours Fly”, meanwhile, veers from smart, tempered beats and Egyptian guitar scales into something darker and more wild.
Yorke and Greenwood sound like they’re having a ball on “Eyes & Mouth”. The latter bounces from a Chic-style riff into dazzling scalar melodies, propelled by Skinner’s shimmering hi-hats and skittering beats. There’s something of Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales’s precise minimalism in the piano that opens “Tiptoe”, juxtaposed by deep, orchestral sighs of strings, which invoke Yorke and Greenwood’s more ambient work scoring films.
Cutouts feels a little like the cheeky younger sister of Wall of Eyes. The arrangements on that second album skewed traditional; more sombre and vulnerable in tone. Here, there’s a newfound vibrancy perhaps taking cues from Skinner’s jazz background. It’s extraordinary really, that two albums were born out of the same sessions. Even “The Slip”, a track steeped in Yorke’s signature paranoia, has a playful edge owing to its woozy beats and abrupt burst of Bowie-style guitar squalls. When The Smile are as good as this, there’s no real reason to gripe about a Radiohead return.
