The Smile Cutouts LP

The Smile – Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet's Tom Skinner – return with their third album, Cutouts.

The 10-track album was produced and mixed by Sam Petts-Davies (Frank Ocean Blond, Thom Yorke Suspiria), mastered by Sterling Sound's Greg Calbi and features artwork by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, in Oxford and in moments on the road, the tracks feature strings by the London Contemporary Orchestra as well as contemporary U.K. jazz player Pete Wareham (flute). Keen-eyed fans will be familiar with a number of tracks that have been debuted live during the band's 2023 and 2024 tours as well as recognize "Tiptoe," which was shared as a sneak preview at 2024's Wall of Eyes, On Film events.

Cutouts follows the band's acclaimed albums Wall of Eyes – released earlier in 2024 – and 2022's A Light for Attracting Attention, which was named an AOTY by Pitchfork, Uncut, MOJO, Rough Trade, Billboard, New York Times, Consequence and many more.

Over 10 songs, The Smile proves to listeners that they're only capable of making songs of the highest quality. It is an immersive and all-encompassing record that is at its best when you play it loud, allowing all of the vast textures of sound to wash over you. In its quietest moments, the album is still full of beauty, which simmers beneath the surface, beckoning us closer...there is hardly a moment here that isn't less than spectacular.

This band is having a ball, that much is plain. It's a danceable album, upbeat in tone basically all the way through.

Compared with its predecessor, Cutouts is looser, funkier—a thrilling testament to the near-telepathic chemistry these three musicians have honed across two years of touring.

Even though Cutouts was conceived at the same time as Wall of Eyes, it's clearly a separate entity and a progression for the band.....every bit as worthy of devoted listening as the first two Smile albums.