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). Critics likened them to Radiohead, with more jazz, krautrock and progressive rock influences and a looser, wilder sound.

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 2022 and 2023. They have released two live EPs: The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022) and Europe: Live Recordings 2022. Their second album, Wall of Eyes, produced by Sam Petts-Davies, was released in January 2024, followed by a European tour.

History
The Smile comprise the Radiohead members Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keys) with Tom Skinner (drums). Skinner, who had played with acts including the jazz band Sons of Kemet, first worked with Greenwood when he played on the soundtrack to the 2012 film The Master. The Smile members agreed not to give interviews about the project. They 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".

The Smile's first record was 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 (2020), as motivating factors. Pitchfork attributed the Smile to Greenwood's frustration with Radiohead's slow working pace and his desire to release records that are "90 percent as good [that] come out twice as often". 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." 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".

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. That October, Yorke performed a Smile song, "Free in the Knowledge", at the Letters Live event at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

In January 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 in Zagreb, 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.

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.

Wall of Eyes
In March 2023, the Smile confirmed that they were seven weeks into recording a second album. On 20 June, they released the first single, "Bending Hectic". Stereogum described it as an "epic that starts out soft and quiet and builds into a splendorous stomping beast". In September, Yorke and Stanley Donwood exhibited a selection of artwork created for the Smile, The Crow Flies, in London.

The Smile released their second album, Wall of Eyes, produced by Sam Petts-Davies, on 26 January 2024. It was promoted with the singles "Wall of Eyes" and "Friend of a Friend", both accompanied by music videos directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

On 19 January, the Smile held a series of screenings, Wall of Eyes on Film, at independent cinemas. The screenings included listening parties for the album and a selection of Yorke and Greenwood's videos with Anderson. The band members made a surprise appearance at the Prince Charles Cinema in London and answered questions from the audience.

In March, the Smile began a European tour, including a performance at 6 Music Festival in Manchester with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Their August tour was canceled after Greenwood was temporarily hospitalised with a serious infection. In April, Yorke released a film soundtrack, Confidenza, with contributions from Skinner and Stillman.

Style
Consequence wrote that the Smile incorporate elements of post-punk, proto-punk and math rock. The 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". On several songs, Greenwood uses a delay effect to create "angular" synchronised repeats.

Critics likened the Smile to Yorke and Greenwood's band Radiohead; both acts use "warped" melodies, unusual time signatures and "vintage rock" sensibilities. The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile sounded "simultaneously more skeletal and knottier" than Radiohead, with progressive rock influences, complex riffs and "hard-driving" motorik psychedelia. The Uncut critic Wyndham Wallace described the Smile as "less a spinoff than regeneration, like a new Doctor Who, emerging from the same gene pool with equal gravitas".

Reviewing Wall of Eyes for Pitchfork, Jazz Monroe said the Smile was "stranger and wilder" than Radiohead, with greater emphasis on jazz, progressive rock and krautrock. He said the Smile allowed Yorke and Greenwood to "loosen up" after decades refining the Radiohead sound. Pitchfork identified a "bounce" in Skinner's drumming and "unfamiliar aggression" in Greenwood's basslines. Stanley Donwood, who works with Yorke to create cover art for Radiohead and the Smile, said the Smile worked much more quickly than Radiohead.

Members

 * Jonny Greenwood – guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, harp
 * Tom Skinner – drums, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals
 * Thom Yorke – vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, piano

Touring members
 * Robert Stillman – saxophone