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Nov 05, 2024 Web Exclusive By Scotty Dransfield

Reviewing any album involving Thom Yorke, especially in conjunction with collaborator Jonny Greenwood, inevitably invites comparisons to their work with Radiohead. Step into any internet comments section on anything by The Smile, the duo’s band with jazz drummer Tom Skinner, and you’ll find that most of the comments are made by Radiohead fans who, almost universally, would prefer a new Radiohead album.

For what it’s worth, Yorke, in his own words, “[doesn’t] really give a flying fuck.” So it goes. The Smile are continuing, for now, at a brisk pace: Cutouts is their third album in just over two years, and whether it compares to Radiohead’s output or not, it’s certainly a quality album, and the most cohesive collection they’ve yet released.

The strength of Cutouts lies in its consistent mood, a quality that The Smile’s previous albums lacked. Tracks like “Instant Psalm,” “Eyes & Mouth,” “Bodies Laughing,” and “Tiptoe” achieve a lushness reminiscent of Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool. “The Slip” and “Colours Fly” stand out by transforming dark instrumental motifs into richly layered and melodically complex pieces through their captivating chord progressions. For once, these tracks complement each other by flowing together, making Cutouts feel less like a mixtape than January’s release Wall of Eyes or 2022’s A Light for Attracting Attention did.

A hallmark of Yorke and Greenwood’s best collaborations since 2000 is the seamless blending of electronic production with organic instrumentation. On Cutouts, this blend happens from track to track: opener “Foreign Spies” is a dark, electronic ballad, and the next track “Instant Psalm” is a pretty, string-laden, acoustic ballad, and despite their aesthetic differences they sound like natural bedfellows. That dynamic is then reversed as the brilliant could-be-Radiohead song “Eyes & Mouth” transitions to the fully synth-arpeggio-driven “Don’t Get Me Started.”

Not every track hits the mark. “No Words” feels like an uninspired continuation of “Zero Sum” and is the album’s weakest link. Despite this, Cutouts showcases an impressive ability to assemble disparate tracks into a cohesive experience. It suggests that The Smile are improving at the craft of album creation, and hints that it’s this very assembly process which might be why Radiohead albums take so long to crystallize and release.

Cutouts is an exciting milestone for The Smile, showcasing a new ability to create a unified and emotionally rich album, while still drawing on the creative fertility and spontaneity fans have come to expect from this most productive of Yorke’s projects. (www.thesmiletheband.com)

Author rating: 8/10