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Alienation is Thom Yorke’s perennial theme. It has been central to his work since he howled about feeling like a weirdo on Radiohead’s debut single “Creep” in 1992. So it’s not unusual to find him singing lines such as “Don’t think you know me” on the new album by his side-project The Smile. But familiarity shouldn’t breed contempt. Wall of Eyes provides a particularly subtle treatment of this obsessively explored topic.
Made with Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, the album follows on the heels of The Smile’s 2022 debut, A Light for Attracting Attention. On that earlier record the partnership between Yorke and Greenwood seemed reinvigorated, as though liberated from the rigmarole surrounding their main band. They were also loosened up by Skinner’s responsive drumming, honed in London’s resurgent jazz scene of the last decade.
Wall of Eyes is even more exploratory than its predecessor. Written while touring, its eight songs have an improvisatory air. The “grains of sand slipping through our hands” that Yorke sings about in the title track are matched by the fine-grained flow of Greenwood’s guitar and Skinner’s percussion. “Teleharmonic” has hazy textures and a pulsing rhythm like subconscious activity directing a dream. “Friend of a Friend” is lushly mellow orchestral rock about fake appearances. Its swoony, swinging feel gives verses about lying and theft a strangely seductive magnetism.
Produced by Sam Petts-Davies rather than Radiohead mainstay Nigel Godrich, the musicianship is nuanced and expressive. Skinner plays drums with a light touch while Greenwood doodles oddly tilted guitar phrases across songs. The only moment of rocking out comes in “Bending Hectic” after a vertiginously climbing string arrangement. It illustrates Yorke’s tale of driving a vintage sports car off the edge of an Italian mountain road like the blankly self-destructive protagonist of a Michelangelo Antonioni film.
It might be objected that the alienation here is that of a highly successful rock star in his 50s. Lavish resourcing has certainly gone into the album, with orchestral parts recorded at Abbey Road Studios and promo films by celebrated director Paul Thomas Anderson. But Yorke has rarely been so warm or tender at the microphone. When he sings, “Time is kind of frozen,” he sounds as though he is melting into his surroundings, a blissful act of surrender, like a person yearning for freedom or release.
★★★★★
‘Wall of Eyes’ is released by XL Recordings
