The Smile (band)

The Smile (band)
The Smile are an English rock band comprising the Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keys) with Tom Skinner (drums). They incorporate elements of post-punk, progressive rock, Afrobeat and electronic music.
The Smile worked during the COVID-19 lockdowns and made their surprise debut in a performance streamed by Glastonbury Festival in May 2021. In early 2022, they released six singles and performed to an audience for the first time at three shows in London, which were livestreamed. In May, the Smile released their debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention, to acclaim. It was produced by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead's longtime producer.
The Smile toured Europe and North America in mid-2022. They began recording new material in 2023, and began another North American tour in July. They have released two live EPs: The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022) and Europe: Live Recordings 2022.
History
The Smile are composed of the Radiohead members Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke with the drummer Tom Skinner. Skinner, who had played with acts including the jazz band Sons of Kemet, first worked with Greenwood when he played on his soundtrack to the 2012 film The Master. The Smile members agreed not to give interviews about the project.
The Smile are produced by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead's longtime producer. Godrich said the project emerged from Greenwood "writing all these riffs, waiting for something to happen" during the COVID-19 lockdown. He cited the pandemic and the unavailability of the Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien, who was busy with his debut solo album, Earth, as motivating factors. Radiohead's drummer, Philip Selway, said it was "healthy" for the members to explore different projects and "see what these other musical voices can do with your ideas". Greenwood said: "We didn't have much time, but we just wanted to finish some songs together. It's been very stop-start, but it's felt a happy way to make music."
The Smile take their name from the title of a poem by Ted Hughes. Yorke said it was "not the smile as in 'ahh', more the smile as in the guy who lies to you every day".
First performances
The Smile made their debut in a surprise performance for the concert video Live at Worthy Farm, produced by Glastonbury Festival and streamed on May 22, 2021. The performance was recorded in secret earlier that week and announced on the day of the stream. The band performed eight songs, with Yorke and Greenwood on guitar, bass, Moog synthesiser and Rhodes piano.
Yorke performed a Smile song, "Free in the Knowledge", at the Letters Live event at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in October 2021. On January 29 and 30, 2022, the Smile performed to an audience for the first time at three shows at Magazine, London, which were livestreamed. They played in the round, and debuted several tracks, including "Speech Bubbles", "A Hairdryer", "Waving a White Flag" and "The Same". The shows also included performances of "Open the Floodgates", which Yorke first performed in 2010, and a cover of the 1979 Joe Jackson single "It's Different for Girls".
In NME, James Balmont gave the London show four out of five, describing it as "meticulous, captivating stuff". In the Guardian, Kitty Empire gave it four out of five, writing that "the Smile are most musically convincing when they stretch farther away from Radiohead", while Alexis Petridis gave it three, saying it was "intriguing rather than dazzling, intermittently spellbinding, filled with fascinating ideas that don't always coalesce".
A Light for Attracting Attention
On 20 April 2022, the Smile announced their debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention. It was released digitally through XL Recordings on 13 May, followed by a retail release on 17 June, and reached number five on the UK Albums Chart. It received acclaim; the Pitchfork critic Ryan Dombal wrote that it was "instantly, unmistakably the best album yet by a Radiohead side project". The first single, "You Will Never Work in Television Again", was released on streaming platforms on 5 January 2022. It was followed by "The Smoke", "Skrting on the Surface", "Pana-vision", "Free in the Knowledge", and "Thin Thing".
On 16 May, the Smile began a tour of Europe and North America. The tour included performances of the unreleased song "Just Eyes and Mouth", Yorke's 2009 single "FeelingPulledApartByHorses" and new material. The band were joined for some songs by the saxophonist Robert Stillman. A second North American tour began in mid-2023, including the Smile's first show in Mexico City and a headlining slot at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.
Live EPs
On 14 December 2022, the Smile released a digital EP, The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022), with songs from their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland. On 10 March 2023, they released a limited-edition vinyl EP, Europe: Live Recordings 2022, which includes a performance of "FeelingPulledApartByHorses".
Further recordings
In March 2023, the Smile confirmed that they were seven weeks into recording a second album. Greenwood said in June that the album was about working within the limits of a three-person band, and that they were still working through a backlog of ideas generated during the pandemic.
On 20 June, the Smile released a non-album single, "Bending Hectic", featuring strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra. It was produced by Sam Petts-Davies and recorded in Abbey Road Studios, London. The Smile first performed "Bending Hectic" in July 2022, when Yorke said he had written the lyrics on the same day. Stereogum described it as an "epic that starts out soft and quiet and builds into a splendorous stomping beast".
Style
Consequence wrote that the Smile incorporate elements of post-punk, proto-punk and math rock. Pitchfork likened them to Radiohead's "vintage rock sensibilities", with a "slight bounce" in Skinner's drumming and "unfamiliar aggression" in Greenwood's basslines. On several Smile songs, Greenwood uses a delay effect to create "angular" synchronised repeats.
The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile "sound like a simultaneously more skeletal and knottier version of Radiohead", incorporating progressive rock influences with unusual time signatures, complex riffs and "hard-driving" motorik psychedelia. Another Guardian critic, Kitty Empire, noted Afrobeat elements in "Just Eyes and Mouth" and influence from 1960s electronic music and systems music in "Open the Floodgates" and "The Same". Reviewing "You Will Never Work in Television Again", the Pitchfork critic Jayson Greene described it as a "raw-boned rock number" reminiscent of Radiohead's 1995 album The Bends.
Members
Jonny Greenwood – guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, harp
Tom Skinner – drums, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals
Thom Yorke – vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, piano
Robert Stillman – sax (touring)
Discography
Studio album
EPs
Singles
References
English art rock groups
2021 establishments in the United Kingdom
Musical groups established in 2021
Radiohead
XL Recordings artists