Compare The Smile and Radiohead at your own peril. Prolific in one area, absent in another. Thom Yorke and those who jumped to this jazz art project find themselves detailing artsy fusions at a breakneck pace. A second album in the same year? You do treat us, Yorke. Or is it just the excess of recordings first thought of on Wall of Eyes? Either way, there is more to come and while Cutouts is little more than a month away, the peppering of singles has been sudden. An out of the blue release and with it comes Don’t Get Me Started. A vinyl exclusive is never going to stay as such when YouTube is out there. It means we can listen to The Slip with ease. The return of single exclusives to vinyl is a neat experience, though distracting yourself with the Rough Trade sale for a half hour is to paddle in dangerous waters.
Return then to The Smile and their ambitious, consistent flurry of jazz-like creations. Their creeping, noir style on Don’t Get Me Started feels a tad retro and marks an enjoyable return to their sound. Yes, the eight-month gap between their second record and new material was a heartbreaking time, one where we clawed at the walls and smashed in windows, searching for another opportunity to hear Yorke reverb his voice. This is an exceptional piece. Those erratic bits of percussion underlining this effort are a welcome change of pace for the band, which goes from strength to strength in this tale of villainous rejection. Perhaps it is from reading The Big Sleep before listening to this but the noir settling through this is paramount. We do not get Yorke. We do not get The Smile. Who does? Listeners are still way off the mark with what the band is doing, at least Don’t Get Me Started would have us believe this.
Consistent experimentation has steered The Smile well. The more they create and collaborate, the less likely we are to hear a Radiohead return. Technically unreleased track The Slip continues this darker trend. Percussion-heavy moods and a sense of Yorke disconnecting from what little optimism could be heard in their previous records. Physically released, the sweaty hands of Spotify yet to grab The Slip, make it somewhat special. It is more than an easter egg track and will likely be the song The Smile holds up as their shining example of Cutouts. Moody stuff once more and the slippery suspects of a detective novel can be heard shifting through.
Shadowy efforts broken up by a Greenwood guitar section are all well and good. The Smile continues with what has made their sound so enjoyable, intense and experimental so far. Their ease of creation is a credit to their collaborative efforts and a steal for those who hope to hear more from them. Long may this reign of quality continue. Don’t Get Me Started and The Slip are continuations of an experimental sound garnering enough attention to consider it as the permanent replacement to cries for a Radiohead reunion. Maybe this is it. If it is then we have some blissful pieces of work at hand, the moodier tones Yorke is developing in the state of inventive, often improvised sections, is a new breach of familiar messages.
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