The Smile – Wall of Eyes (Single) Review

Thom Yorke without a project is a man wasting his time. For the work rate he and Jonny Greenwood display from their time outside of Radiohead, there is a genuinely impressive scope to their varying sounds. Soundtrack work, little oddities and collaborations with the big brains of filmmaking, it was high time the duo pieced something new together. Out of the fire comes The Smile, a miniature reckoning now set for their second album and a proper tour. Comfortable acoustics spring from another experimental piece of The Smile. Their calibre of playing style means the slide guitar structure, the steady percussion of a box drum and the laid-back approach featured here matches up with Bending Hectic.  

Rightly so. These tender flows and slower couplings are a real and rare treat for those infatuated by the band and its slower paces. The Smile and Radiohead will forever be in conjunction with one another due to two members within, but their styles and frequency could not be further removed from one another. Wall of Eyes, the title track of this upcoming release, proves it. Guided by the string experience of Greenwood and the rhythm steadied by Yorke, Wall of Eyes is given a real and truthful chance to work. Fear the artists who are channelling their efforts into an indecipherable project. Whatever Wall of Eyes is, and however it works in conjunction with the rest of the album, is yet to be seen. Unravelling in its own time is all part of the play – but the need to understand this track immediately is, for some, too much to bear.  

For now we can take Wall of Eyes as a slice of a piece with no ambition to follow a steady suit. Instead there is the implication of spontaneity, of lingering hopes and fears as the backing vocals from Yorke present fits of barely hinged laughter. Expansive work from Tom Skinner brings Wall of Eyes to life – it would be nothing at all without this percussion high. “Strap yourself in,” Yorke pleads. His wispy voice is a beautiful touch to this one, a real flourish of quality on a song which brushes with perfection. It is not quite there, never readily developed as such but comes blissfully close to the effective range The Smile so often utilises. A new record from the deemed side project of Greenwood and Yorke brings about yet another quality release – as should be expected. 

This is the standard set not by listeners but by the Radiohead alumni and their firm hand on percussion, Skinner. Hints of sinister, melancholic mood setters are littered throughout, the dissonance toward the end of the track most certainly confirming it. Dark and intentionally plodding at times before it starts to fizzle out, Wall of Eyes is experimental in every sense of the word but considering the talent in charge of the instruments at play here, their tests are nothing shy of exceptional. Hold out and see what comes next but for now, Wall of Eyes sounds brash, discomforting and perfectly in tune with the relevancy The Smile and its individual members hold.