“Cutouts” – The Smile Album Review

Review by Tyler Apple – 

The Radiohead side project continues to push the envelope for experimentation, as well as being a surprisingly fun listen. 

English art/experimental rock band The Smile just released their third studio album on Friday, October 4th, 2024 through XL recordings. Cutouts is their second album of 2024, as Wall of Eyes was released back in January of this year. As much as I enjoyed their previous album, the announcement of a fresh new album by the end of the same year gave me mixed feelings. With some bands, releasing two albums in one year could mean they created one great album and the second being just an afterthought, a group of B-sides purposefully left off of the first album (for potentially good reason). 

The Smile is made up of Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood, as well as Tom Skinner on the drums. Although there is some shared DNA between Radiohead and The Smile, there is still so much that The Smile offers sonically that the two can be compartmentalized. Sure, they’re both experimental art rock at its core, but especially from the new album I can say that the band is operating on a new wavelength. 

“Foreign Spy” opens the album with dreamy atmospheric synth work and Yorke’s signature melodic vocals. Although there isn’t a lot going on in this song, it definitely piqued my interest and curiosity as far as what the band was going for on this record. 

“Instant Psalm” switched up the sound completely and went for a more acoustic guitar-driven song with some beautiful orchestral strings layered in the back. Yorke’s melancholic vocal melodies remind me of something he would do on Ok Computer. It’s a lot more stripped-down compared to a lot of other songs by the band, yet it doesn’t feel rudimentary. 

The third track on the record, “Zero Sum” quickly became my favorite song on the album and one of the most interesting pieces of music I’ve heard in 2024. The infectious guitar riff of this track instantly caught my attention and the groovy rhythm took me completely by surprise. I get a strong Afrobeat influence from the rhythm section. The song is fast and full of energy with an insanely interesting and unique style of guitar leads. Johnny Greenwood has always been an innovative guitar player and composer, so it comes as no surprise that he has found a way to completely blow me away by him translating a weird guitar technique into an infectious groovy guitar part that serves the song perfectly.

Some other songs that stuck out to me are “Eyes and Mouth” with a strong sense of groove and influence of jazz, as well as “No Words” with beautiful vocals from Yorke and once again, a strong sense of groove. 

“Tiptoe” contains a gorgeous string section that gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it, as well as every other time I listened to it. It’s just that good. 

A common thread of this album that I see is that the songs tend to build upon themselves. When a lot of the songs start, the listener gets a general idea as far as the sonic direction that the song takes. They don’t stray too far from itself. That being said, the songs can bend, they can darken and lighten, but they never change their identity. 

For some listeners, this may mean that it doesn’t grab them upon first listen. For me, it took a couple of listens to have the songs stick with me. The songs don’t follow strict verse-chorus-verse song structures. Instead, they almost act like jam sessions, evolving and becoming more intense as they continue. Most songs end with some sort of satisfying resolution, even if it’s not the traditional resolution that you might expect. 

Despite this, the songs are never so experimental that they feel uninviting or pretentious. The tracklist is dynamic enough so it doesn’t feel too tedious to listen to. Some songs leave a lot of space and are more reminiscent of their more ambient work, while a good selection of other songs contain a lot of fun groove and rhythm sections that can be enjoyed by almost anyone. 

This album contains as much lush and beautiful falsetto vocals as “Wall of Eyes” while also adding completely new elements that take the songs to a different level.  My least favorite songs on this album are “Don’t Get Me Started” and “Bodies Laughing.” Neither song is bad by any means, but I found these songs to have less interesting elements than the rest. My initial worries about this album were completely disproven by first listen. This album feels completely thought through. The band proves that they still have incredibly fresh and creative ideas for how they can craft a song, whilst carrying over their strong sense of melody and odd time signatures from the last record. 

I would recommend this album to anyone interested in the more experimental side of alternative music. If you are already a fan of the band, definitely check it out. If you like Radiohead, I would give this album a try. It’s a little different, but if you have an open mind I think you’ll find something you enjoy in this. I would also give this album a few chances if it didn’t strike you the first time. The songs are slow burners, so they may not connect with some listeners upon first listening. However, if you give the album some time, I’m sure you will connect with something.

 

Rating: 4.5/5 

 

Featured image from Amazon.com.