The Smile Sees The Future of Rock With Wall of Eyes

Wall of Eyes proves that The Smile is no fluke and no short-lived side project. Rather, they are as groundbreaking and important as their parent band Radiohead.

Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are no strangers to critical and commercial success. Each has composed film scores (Suspira, There Will Be Blood), solo releases (The Eraser, Anima), and been a part of side projects (Atoms for Peace, Junun, Jarak Qaribak) that have all been lauded by critics, fans, and fellow artists. Oh, and they are among the co-founders of one of the most praised, critically and commercially, and popular rock bands of the 20th and 21st centuries (Radiohead). What is there left for the two to do? The answer would seem to be “not much,” but with The Smile, founded by Yorke, Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, the answer is a resounding “MUCH.” 

While Radiohead ran the gamut of early post-grunge to electronic post-rock to progressive/jazz-influenced guitar rock (not in that order per se), none of the band members’ side projects or solo releases managed to fuse all of those disparate genres nearly as powerfully as The Smile does, and that includes Radiohead. Relying on the classic foundational interplay between guitar, bass, and drums, The Smile builds a unique sound by invariably fusing rock, symphonic psychedelia, and guitar lines that at first sound like meandering jazz improves, but reveal themselves to be meticulously calculated compositions that at once reveal landscapes that both comfort and unsettle the listener.

Speaking of things unsettling, all the characteristics of the best modernist art and literature are here thematically, a carryover from Radiohead’s music. There’s alienation, loss, absurdity, and a fracturing of genre, and the individual, sprinkled throughout with a touch of postmodern humor and snark, something that is also present but not often accounted for in Radiohead’s music. With Yorke having a degree in English and Fine Arts from the University of Exeter, this continues to be no surprise. Like the best rock bands, the bands Yorke has been in have been blessed with something important to say to go along with the important sounds these bands have conjured. 

It’s their thematic sound that makes The Smile stand out as something truly innovative and unique in this age of studio magic pop though. What is so brilliant about their sound is that it is created upon that aforementioned foundation that so many of the biggest pop acts find uninspiring along the way toward creating some of the most uninspiring music ever. With Wall of Eyes, The Smile assembles another string of mostly outstanding songs that take their listeners through a landscape of sounds that can only be described as symphonic, and not in the haphazard way some metal is described as symphonic. This too is no surprise given the background of film scoring projects of both Yorke and Greenwood. The arrangement of “Read the Room” is nothing short of astonishing with its movements. Riding just under the surface of these movements is Yorke’s simmering menace that bubbles up through the lyrics. “…these massive egos/so big they bend the light” and “keep this shit away from me,” speaks to the traumas unleashed by the age of game-show presidents and Baby Boomers in the halls of Congress and The White House who just won’t go out to pasture and let the younger generations lead. Yorke hasn’t sounded this irritated (outside The Smile’s last album) since OK Computer. Every song on Wall of Eyes isn’t quite as brilliant as “Read the Room,” even if they are genius stacked up against most other bands releasing popular music right now. “Under Our Pillows” rehashes the same type of guitar lines that dominated “Thin Thing” off of A Light for Attracting Attention, but the song is saved by some more of that apocalyptic swirl that closes out the track that is much more intricately arranged than it at first sounds. “Under Our Pillows” skid into oblivion has nothing on the crashing guitars of the final two minutes of “Bending Hectic.” It is here that Yorke and Greenwood reestablish their reverence for the power of the electric guitar, something that Radiohead never fully abandoned and hopefully The Smile never will either. 

“I Quit” sports some interestingly manipulated acoustic guitar lines that are accompanied by more of Yorke’s somber piano playing that vaguely invokes Trent Reznor at his most delicate, but moves in completely different directions. One of the album’s weaker moments shows up in “Teleharmonic.” Pitch-shifting warbles glide under Yorke’s echoing falsetto which eventually gives way to similarly warbling flutes, which end up not going much of anywhere. The same is true for the title track “Wall of Eyes” where a rather simply strummed acoustic guitar line repeats ad infinitum amid echoing cracks and building strings that do much to create that tri-tone-like stress of the buildup that never receives release, but such sentiments are expressed better elsewhere on the album, like during the bridge of “Bending Hectic.” The Paul Thomas Anderson-directed video for “Wall of Eyes” does elevate it, albeit barely. It is something to say though where the weakest track on an album is still way more interesting and engaging than anything off nearly every album released since The Smile’s last release. 

Perhaps most intriguing about Wall of Eyes is the bevy of tracks that The Smile left off the album that they have been playing live over the past few years. The Smile, like Radiohead, often plays tracks live as part of their regular sets that show up on later albums. “Bodies Laughing” and “Just Eyes and Mouth” are two of the songs they’ve been playing live that didn’t make the cut. Perhaps they are still being developed, or held back, for a third LP down the road? We can only hope as both are equally brilliant songs fully deserving a full studio recording. Wherever The Smile goes though, following them will be worth it. Yorke and company are once again pushing the medium forward.