The Smile Wall of Eyes LP

The Smile's 2024 album Wall of Eyes was recorded between Oxford and Abbey Road Studios, and is produced and mixed by Sam Petts-Davies. It features string arrangements by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Wall of Eyes is the follow up their 2022 debut LP A Light for Attracting Attention, which received critical acclaim from the likes of The Guardian, Pitchfork, The Observer, The Needle Drop, Rolling Stone, New York Magazine, Uncut and MOJO, and more.

Viewing Wall of Eyes and its relationship to predecessor A Light for Attracting Attention, one might travel back to the turn-of-the-millennium sibling pair Kid A and Amnesiac: whereas their debut as a trio felt like a blockbuster declaration, this younger sibling takes a less immediate route, playing on mood and atmosphere that demands more focus from the listener. And like Amnesiac, the meandering, experimental feel of Wall of Eyes can be more spiritually nourishing than its elder, in a nebulous, can't-quite-put-your-finger-on-it kind of way....Having proven themselves with Light, the Smile take more risks with this follow-up, resulting in a gorgeous, sometimes difficult trip into the unknown that, if only briefly, can make you forget about their main gig.

After decades refining, refusing, and reformulating the Radiohead sound, Yorke and Greenwood seem emboldened to stop resisting - to loosen up and let their songwriting impulses absorb whatever happens to be on their stereo that day. Wall of Eyes gives center stage to jazz, kosmische, prog - aesthetic signposts and satellite genres usually kept in the more established band's wings. The Smile, though stranger and wilder, more comfortably fit in the omnivorous art-rock tradition.