The Smile - Wall of Eyes
Rock – Released January 26, 2024 – 8 songs, 45 mins
REID
Gonna start this one with a story.
It’s 10am on Friday, January 26th, 2024. I wake up in a panic in a hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. I had a large open-bar kinda evening and forgot to set an alarm. I scramble to jam my belongings in my suitcase, make myself presentable and head downstairs for the airport shuttle. In the eloquent words of Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, I had a head on me like a haunted house.
I fidget anxiously in the security line as it’s a few mins from boarding time. Guy is yelling at me in a thick southern accent about liquids, gels and large electronics. I satisfy all his obnoxious orders and step into the scanner with my hands raised in stick-up fashion, hoping the machine can’t detect my spaghetti-for-brains. Luckily not. But they did detect something around my groin. Another dude gives me the spiel on an additional inspection. He asks if I want to do it where we are or in private. Let me preface this part by saying I travel for work and have boarded over 165 flights the past three years. I know the drill. I say ‘here is fine’ and the man proceeds to well, borderline sexually assault me right there in front of everyone. A more than thorough check, over the top, up and under... Let’s just say he knows what I’m working with. I might have given my shock more energy but I had to go. Last time I let the tassels dangle on my lululemons in those scanners…
I hurry to my gate and friggin eh, I made it! It’s boarding as I arrive and I essentially walk right on the plane. I find my seat, open the AC vent and point it at my face. With a deep exhale, I grab my AirPods and proceed to shut my brain off and choose my entertainment for the flight. To my delight, I’m reminded it’s the release date of the second record by The Smile.
There’s a layer of anxiety mixed in with the excitement of hearing new music by your favourite artists and that was me in that moment. I had listened to the four pre-released songs in advance and was managing my expectations the best I could. One of the challenges cited by TSR on the review of their first album was how long it took to click. Thom and Johnny’s music has never been your friendly, easy-going radio listen but something about A Light for Attracting Attention (ALFAA) took an extra mile to truly get there. Now it may be a moot point since it was the best album of 2022 in my books but there was room for it to be even better. All those nervous thoughts were washed away within three tracks and fifteen minutes and I already knew I was listening to something special.
As a long-time lover of Radiohead, it’s no secret how difficult it is to decipher meaning in songs by Thom Yorke. Effectively doing so in twelve days is damn near impossible. So I’ll do what I always do – immerse myself in thematic complexity, enjoy the beauty of the music and let the messages become clearer over time.
The music. By god. Mesmerizing and intricate. Amazing. Perplexing. I’m going to run out of adjectives and superlatives. Wall of Eyes, I Quit and Teleharmonic are harrowing tales, continuing to open the door for theatrical use. The latter is incredibly special. The type of song you just don’t hear every day and one only certain artists can pull off. It already found its way on to season six of Peaky Blinders, a show that has frequently used Thom Yorke’s music to portray the protagonists’ troubled way of life. It’s an early contender for 2024 song of the year. This, along with the incredible transitions in Read the Room had the hung over, sad boy scanning the plane to see if anyone noticed his cheeky grin. Under Our Pillows draws comparisons to ALFAA’s Thin Thing. That jam mid-way through is just awesome. The piano-led and string layered Friend of a Friend is the most accessible tune of the collection, with Thom’s vocals being the ultimate cherry on top. Bending Hectic is the build-up epic this album deserves and while it may take long to get there, the pay off is absolutely worth it. Last but certainly not least is You Know Me, a Thom Yorke piano ballad. Like Pyramid Song and The Last Flowers before him, this one has me revisiting it multiple times per day for its genuine wow-factor.
I’ve been guilty in the past of overrating albums of bands I love – looking at you Unlimited Love. ‘It’s subjective…opinion-based’ as Jay-Z put it a couple nights ago on the Grammy’s. Those thoughts crept into my head as I ranked this. After some soul searching and reflection, I can truthfully say I’d go higher on this one before I’d go lower. Thom and Johnny are masters at work and it’s remarkable at 55 and 52 years of age. Let’s appreciate the hell out of them while they’re still at the top of their game.
Otherwordly, cinematic, beautiful. Wall of Eyes truly is an experience. Packed with meticulous attention to detail and satisfying moments, Thom, Johnny and Tom are in sync through eight excellent songs. The runtime is compact and feels just right, a notable improvement on its predecessor. The Smile raise the bar to another level and this fan hopes they’ll book more small venue shows in North America in 2024.
Overall Rating: 9.0/10
Favourite Song: Teleharmonic
LUNDI
The adoration for Radiohead here at TSR is no secret. They are, after all, the greatest band ever, and while the contributions of all five members is individually vast, it’s hard to envision the bands level of critical and commercial success comes even close without Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood. Their musical excellence and chemistry is unmatched making the duo’s side project, The Smile, all the more tantalizing. Their debut, A Light for Attracting Attention, scratched the hiatus itch but left most still clamouring for a Radiohead return. The recently released follow up, Wall of Eyes, builds on the predecessor in nearly every way and sees the band firm up their musical identity but was it enough to quiet the cries for something of old? Let’s find out.
From the top, one of the most refreshing outcomes of this album experience is seeing an older generation succeed with new music. Having been pretty upfront and unapologetic with the poor quality of current legends Metallica, RHCP, and Foo Fighters to name a few, it’s down right awesome to see The Smile making a record this excellent well into their 50’s. Music is no doubt a young persons game and while longevity may be there for the greats it nearly always comes in the form of quantity, not quality. The Smile prove there is room for artistic development and contribution your whole career. Never content, these musical geniuses mould new sounds, push boundaries and experiment in new invigorating ways.
With numerous Radiohead review references so far it may surprise that the best thing about this album is it doesn’t feel like Radiohead. Where ALFAA felt like a band trying to find their distance from the main project it ultimately ended up fitting neatly in that discography. Wall of Eyes still has some signature Radiohead tendencies and a Thom Yorke fronted band will always have that connection, but their follow up record is a clearer departure that sees The Smile became their own band with their own unique stylings. It’s more cohesive and accessible signalling the trio learned some excellent lessons from their debut. There is no sophomore slump here, as the hunger to elevate this project has grown immensely. Wall of Eyes sees the musicians push outside the comfort zone to develop a refined singular band identity that is so well built that it feels disrespectful to call it a side project.
Sure, a casual music fan could pick up In Rainbows and Wall of Eyes and say it’s the same band but it’s the finer details that develops a rift between the projects and what truly makes this record so great. The upbeat titular track would never see the light of day on a Radiohead Album. Bending Hectic’s 8+ minute runtime? Radiohead’s longest barely passes 6. Is that Arabic flutes on Teleharmonic? It sure is. Try finding those in the main project discography. And my favourite of all, the usually reserved Jonny Greenwood artistically showing off his guitar skills with endless flare through plucky and reverb styled riffs. It’s the little things that separate The Smile and see them come in to their own. If you’re a fellow musician are you infuriated with their ability to make a second band better than 95% of other modern music, or do you just sit in awe of some of the greatest to ever do it?
Radiohead are the musical GOAT and for the first time in my avid fandom there is comfort in the thought that they may never make new music. A feeling only made possible by the excellence of The Smile and their superb record Wall of Eyes.
Overall Rating: 8.7/10
Favourite Song: Teleharmonic
ROZ
If there is one catalyst that can be identified as the origin of this music blog it would have to do with the members of this weeks band, albeit in a different circumstance… and band entirely. The Radiohead show that we saw as a group in Miami during the spring of 2017 not only solidified our friendship but also planted the seed that would one day become this website, podcast, and social media project – Too Sweet Reviews. Thom was there in the beginning, and Thom is still a part of the journey even today in 2024. This week the crew at TSR digs into English rock band The Smile and their second studio album Wall of Eyes, an album that we’ve been itching to get our hands on ever since it was announced back in March 2023.
The most invigorating aspect of this album for me is the sheer complexity masked by its simplicity. I can only describe Wall of Eyes as sonically stunning. If it were a visual medium, it would be something akin to an art exhibit that people meander through, room by room, as they quietly soak in every haunting detail. The balance in its instrumentation, the strategy behind its textures, its ability to create atmosphere and mood, the ways at which the band can create such layered and unique arrangements – all of it combined makes for a listening experience that is nothing short of mesmerizing. Unique time signature choices (Friend of A Friend), dissonant chord structures (Under Our Pillows) and beautiful piano ballads (You Know Me!) are only a few of the many spotlights aimed towards the groups technical and performative abilities.
These are abilities achieved based on the simple fact that Yorke and Greenwood are auteurs within the realm of music as a medium, further supported by their tenure; they’ve been doing groundbreaking work for literal decades. There is a reason why this crowd rises above the typical dribble released by the current “making a comeback for real this time we swear” bands of yester-year, and it is this same reason why the majority of artists and bands have a set timeline (omitting one hit wonders) that gives them their proverbial day in the sun. The Smile, much like Radiohead, find their continued success through three main components carried over from before: amazing chemistry with each other, seasoned experience within the craft itself and finally raw, seemingly limitless talent.
I did the first full listen-through of Wall of Eyes in my usual neutral setting - headphones in, low lighting, zero distractions. I slowly worked my way from the titular track downwards, as the hauntingly beautiful, reverb-drenched voice of the living legend Thom Yorke set me down into an eerily comforting, almost hypnotic state. I eventually get to Bending Hectic where the tension rises, along with my heart rate. The strings get louder and louder, and with each passing moment my heart beats just a little bit quicker. Just as that primal fight or flight response fully envelopes my body, the song concludes and the feelings wash away – a true emotional response from a musical trigger, something that most bands yearn to create. If I had one major complaint about Wall of Eyes it’s that I wish the band toyed with these concepts just a little more, as the full potential was right there just waiting to be realized. Maybe next time.
The Smile prove themselves as more than a one off with this album, an album that is just as strong as their debut. Wall of Eyes shows us once again that The Smile is much, much more than just ‘Radiohead-lite’. Both gripping and complex, the album proves that some artists - the rare few - can still deliver quality, even after seemingly doing it all.
Overall Rating: 8.3/10
Favourite Song: Wall of Eyes