Lush powers from The Smile are expected after such a run of intense instrumental form. Where the band found their footing on A Light for Attracting Attention and furthered their experimental sounds further on Wall of Eyes, their third album, Cutouts, is all about consolidating it. The singles felt like fragments rather than hints of what Cutouts could be. Its lead consistency was the thrill of new material from a project we can trust. Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner are blessed with a rapid creative overhaul which did not bless the other band two of these members appeared in. Cutouts, the second full album release from The Smile this year, is as full of life and well-considered instrumentals as its preceding releases. It feels like a strong continuation of the sound heard in the singles and on the record before this, an ambitious melodic continuation worth hearing.
Surprises are around every corner of this one – with the calmer position of Instant Psalm leading in well to the paranoid instrumental carnage after Zero Sum. Cutouts is all about contrast. And yet in this contrast of conflicting emotional sounds is a consistency which guided the first two albums to their assured views on the world. Yorke is still as engaging a frontman as ever and his lyrical spots here are charged with a positivity which may come as a shock. Eyes & Mouth feels more like a chance for transformation than a feeling of being stuck. Ground yourself in the moment and feel out the play at hand. Cutouts is filled with those opportunities for Yorke and the band to reveal their emotive influences, and Eyes & Mouth is the closest they get.
That is not to say the point of Cutouts is to reveal the origins of this new sound but it is a chance to understand the band and their desire to be so prolific with it. Singles like Don’t Get Me Started still have their charms and slot in inevitably well to the wider project – but it feels like there is some distance between these tracks, enough to extract them and enjoy them in isolation, unlike Wall of Eyes. Variety is the key to Cutouts and it has plenty. From the softer string flourishes of Tiptoe where the meaning of its title is taken quite literally with a near-silent but moving, broad and seemingly off-kilter sound to the roar of closer Bodies Laughing, The Smile continues with what sounds like songs developed in secret for some time.
It is a source of good music, another well of intensity and opportunities from Greenwood, Yorke and Skinner. Keeping it fresh and relevant is no small feat when the out-there stylishness of some tracks, particularly The Slip, makes for heavy listening. But it is remarkable when it lasts on so long and the intensity crashing through Cutouts, receding and pouncing like an unsettled ocean, is its greatest strength. Bass-heavy rushes from No Words complete a set of consistent works where the key is not to stand out but to fall in line with the wider experience. It is reassuring to hear Yorke and The Smile consider the album as an experience, not just something to extract songs from. Cutouts is a challenging beast filled with plenty of subversions and lyrical ports of call, continuing the welcome rise of percussion-led joys from the band.
