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.
This article is about the 2020s English rock band. For other bands, see Smile (disambiguation) § Groups.
The Smile
2020–present
- XL Recordings
- Self Help Tapes
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.
Style[edit]
Consequence wrote that the Smile incorporate elements of post-punk, proto-punk and math rock.[48] 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".[17] On several songs, Greenwood uses a delay effect to create "angular" synchronised repeats.[49]
Critics likened the Smile to Yorke and Greenwood's band Radiohead; both acts use "warped" melodies, unusual time signatures and "vintage rock" sensibilities.[50][51] The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis said the Smile "simultaneously more skeletal and knottier", with progressive rock influences, complex riffs and "hard-driving" motorik psychedelia.[51] 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".[50]
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.[52] Pitchfork identified a "bounce" in Skinner's drumming and "unfamiliar aggression" in Greenwood's basslines.[11] Stanley Donwood, who works with Yorke to create cover art for Radiohead and the Smile, said the Smile worked much more quickly than Radiohead.[53]
Touring members