The Smile – Wall of Eyes Review

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood make for quite a pairing. Throw Tom Skinner in there, the talented drummer making up The Smile, not the West Ham fan and The Apprentice alumni, and what a trio it is. This three-piece has already proved its worth on A Light for Attracting Attention and are firm hands of music history elsewhere. Listeners know where Yorke and Greenwood can take a record – how high it can go and what deep memories it can unlock for the sake of soothing creative burns. Wall of Eyes does not disappoint. This is a proclamation of faith in uncovered grief and a snub to their works elsewhere. A side project spinning, rather rapidly, into the main event. Such is the quality found on Wall of Eyes.  

Settle into the burning, building momentum of this eight-track piece. Opener Wall of Eyes still shines on with a quality laid bare by the inspiring and fluid creative matchups within. The Smile works best when its members are stepping away from the noise, making them sound like their old projects. Plenty of distance is put between Yorke, Greenwood and their Radiohead days. A song like Teleharmonic has all the whines and cries layered underneath it to give off an influx of jazz builds and bridges. Read The Room does much the same though the tones and shapes it begins to cut are a little off base and feel more like a gap filler before Under Our Pillows than anything else. Greenwood and Yorke are desperate to highlight their creative boom and influences are not a construct of Radiohead but a making of their own, Wall of Eyes proves it.  

Did they need to prove it though? The stuttering and juxtaposed guitar work on Under Our Pillows, clattering cymbals and the ghostly presence from Yorke. All of it pulls together and marks the first proper art-rock release of the year. It gets earlier each year. We had to wait until February for The Waeve last time around, but barely a month into 2024 and here is a mark of true quality from the rhythm-focused three-piece. Lead single Bending Hectic and final single Friend Of A Friend settle neatly into place, surrounded by outward cries to the void surreal and well-layered collection of sincere album tracks. I Quit and You Know Me! sound bitterly apologetic, as though empty promises were needed. Ambiguity reigns supreme on I Quit which feeds nicely into the acoustic tenderness found on Bending Hectic.  

Wall of Eyes has amounted to more class and experimentation than anything Yorke and Greenwood have done on their own before. Sprawling film soundtracks, flutters with collaboration and interest in new avenues of performance and production come nowhere close to the wonders found within Wall of Eyes. The Radiohead alumni, along with Skinner, outdo themselves. Triumphant in spots but realistic in others as the weight of the world looms over, the sharp and jazz-like riffs and spontaneity of these songs react and spark with such an effective wail against life and its troubles. Flourished and scarred, the tonal quality of Wall of Eyes comes, as with much of Yorke’s work, tinged in tragedy and acceptance. A desire to move on and make up but biting lyrical assertions are fitted throughout, making for a surprisingly tough but truly rewarding listen.