The Smile: Cutouts (indie shop edition, white vinyl) [XL RECORDINGS]

Why you'll love it

This indie shop edition comes on white vinyl in a matte gatefold sleeve with spot varnish and a printed inner sleeve. Cutouts reached No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart and scored 82 on Metacritic.

This edition

• Indie shop edition
• White vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Printed inner sleeve
• Lyrics included

About the album

Cutouts, the third album from Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood with drummer Tom Skinner as The Smile, pushes the band's creative boundaries with a more atmospheric and experimental approach than Wall of Eyes. Developed from live performances in 2021 and 2022, it prioritizes ambience and intensity over traditional song structures, blending Yorke's incisive lyrics on modern anxieties with a textured, funkier sound.

Tracks like "Don't Get Me Started" pulse with synth-driven momentum, while "Zero Sum" is filled with hyperactive lead guitar and rhythmic complexity. Greenwood's "Eyes and Mouth" combines spiralling riffs with jazzy piano chords, and "Colours Fly" merges Egyptian scales and sonic density in a nod to Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" and "The National Anthem." Produced by Sam Petts-Davies, Cutouts was recorded at Greenwood's home studio in Oxfordshire and at Abbey Road Studios in London, during the same sessions as Wall of Eyes. Yorke explained that the band divided the material between the two albums to do each song justice, and Greenwood's heavy use of delay adds depth, while "Instant Psalm" and "Tiptoe" feature orchestral strings, acoustic guitar and intricate piano.

The title comes from an espionage term Yorke found while reading about Russian interference: two-dimensional proxy characters used for covert connections, which he tied to the flattened conversations of social media. Greenwood insists it's its own record and not leftovers, and frankly we've never heard leftovers this good.

Also at Kops: more The Smile on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On XL Recordings (cat# XL1445LPE), the 2024 album.