The Smile: Wall Of Eyes Vinyl LP

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Why you'll love it

This XL LP comes in a matte gatefold jacket with a printed inner sleeve. Wall Of Eyes made several best-of-the-year lists and reached the top ten of several national albums charts.

This edition

Matte gatefold jacket
Printed inner sleeve
Lyrics included

About the album

At first blush, the Smile seemed like a bit of a busman's holiday for wayward Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. Given the volume of material the trio has put out since its surprise debut at England's Glastonbury Festival in the summer of 2021, however, this thing is starting to look like the main focus for everyone involved. For now, at least. Nobody knows what goes on in Yorke's head, anyway.

On Wall Of Eyes, recorded after extensive touring for 2022's A Light For Attracting Attention, the Smile sounds like a new band revelling in the excitement of figuring out what it's capable of. This time Sam Petts-Davies produced, with sessions in Greenwood's Oxfordshire studio and at Abbey Road and strings from the London Contemporary Orchestra. The title track sways in 5/4, "Read The Room" locks into a motorik groove, "Friend Of A Friend" is a lovely piano song, and "Bending Hectic" builds to a huge finish; Paul Thomas Anderson directed the videos.

It still can't help sounding like a looser-limbed Radiohead jamming with a jazz drummer from time to time, because, well, it's two-fifths of Radiohead jamming with a jazz drummer. But the Smile is definitely developing an identity more substantial than that of a mere side project. In the absence of a new Radiohead album, this will do just fine.

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