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Travis: In keeping with the 2024 theme, this time we’re discussing Wall of Eyes, this year’s release by the Smile. The Smile, who debuted in 2022 with the album A Light for Attracting Attention, is made up of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, bass, keys) and Jonny Greenwood (guitar, bass, keys, harp) of Radiohead, plus drummer Tom Skinner, most well-known for his work with saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings in the British jazz group Sons of Kemet. If they’d only released a one-off album I’d consider this a Radiohead side-project, but the Smile seems to be Yorke’s and Greenwood’s focus for the time being with no new Radiohead album or tour on the horizon, and though Yorke’s unique voice will always call to mind that band, it feels like the Smile is truly its own thing.

I was captivated by their debut in 2022, and saw them play live in 2023, where they played most of that album, as well as five of the eight tracks that make up Wall of Eyes. It was a helluva show. 

Though I came to Radiohead fandom late, I’m familiar with their entire discography and have also seen them live, so I’m coming at this from the perspective of someone who was pretty deep in the weeds as a fan of Yorke and Greenwood and their past work. They’re not one of my favorite bands, but I think they have three really good albums and one perfect one. Tyler, you’re not as familiar with Radiohead. I’m curious how you feel about the Smile as someone not as intimately familiar with two of the three principles’ past work.

Tyler: I feel clueless. My experience with Radiohead has been extremely limited. Thus, I never came close to spinning that first Smile LP, and only gave Wall Of Eyes a shot because a dear friend recommended it. Now, that dear friend is a diehard Radiohead fanatic, so in this department he’s an easier lay. I wasn’t sold going into this one. I listened to it on a nigh-whim.

I hasten to add that I listened at night. I can’t imagine playing Radiohead during daylight, a protocol I stuck to with The Smile. Even today—this morning, facing a drive of an hour or so, with our chat scheduled for tonight, I could’ve very easily squeezed in another WOE run-through. I opted for something a bit lighter.

After dark, though, when I do listen to cryptic ethereal goth-rock…well.

Travis: There is definitely something about both the Smile and Radiohead that lends itself better to nighttime listening. It could be Yorke’s voice, which exudes pain and loneliness, it could be the textures in the sound, it could be the often cold subject matter. I don’t find Wall of Eyes as cold as, say, Kid A, but it’s definitely a dark listen.

While dark, though, I don’t think it’s a difficult one. There are some odd sounds throughout, and Tom Skinner’s drumming is less linear than what you might find from Radiohead’s Phil Selway, but I had no trouble getting into the album. What about you?

Tyler: Oh, I love it. I’ve had it in rotation for some time now, long before your suggestion that we discuss it. I was glad you brought it to the table. Glad, but also daunted. I’m not sure I know how to talk about why I enjoy this album so much.

I hear it in moments and pauses and riffs and one very perfect climax.

I remain surprised by the turns and reveals, even upon the most recent listen—there are three or four different sequences in “Read The Room” alone, which plays as I write.

Travis: I think there are a couple ways I could say why I love it. The simplest would be: I like it because it rules. But like you say, it has complexities that reveal themselves over time and reward repeat listens. There is an incredible diversity of sound here, from the snarling and menacing post-punk riffs of “Read the Room” to the woozy, piano-driven “Under Our Pillows” to the epic multi-part “Bending Hectic” with its conclusion that’s almost doom metal, but it all feels of a piece even with those disparate elements. 

I really liked the first album, but it was a bit more sprawling. The highs on it, like its driving, punky, infectious single “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” match the high points of Wall of Eyes, but WOE is more consistent, a more cohesive album experience. Eight songs, 45 minutes, a side A and side B of one vinyl record, with a build-and-release narrative musical arc throughout its track listing. I would say that Wall of Eyes is the best thing Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood have done since 2007’s In Rainbows, my favorite Radiohead album.

I would not be surprised if, come year’s end, this is my top album of 2024.

Tyler: It’ll be up there for me. Spotify Wrapped, I’m looking at you.

Travis: In a throwback to a long-previous chat, my most-listened song last year on Spotify Wrapped was “Angel,” the opening track from Massive Attack’s Mezzanine.

Tyler: Really!

Travis: also on that list, “Father Figure.”

Tyler: As for WOE, the epic and commanding “Bending Hectic” was my entry point. Its languid beginning, the gobsmacking build and release. I started to sit up and take notice once that track got into my blood. It remains—that, like you say, metal guitar, man is that something—my “favorite” moment on the album. A resounding payoff to forty or so minutes of muted preamble.

Travis: It is definitely a highlight, and what the album builds toward. The final track, “You Know Me!” feels like a comedown from it. I also sort of feel like “I Quit,” which comes before it, fades from memory a little bit once “Bending Hectic” comes in. I wouldn’t necessarily skip either, but they are overshadowed by the song that comes between. 

The run of songs from 1-5, though, I’m captivated all the way through. “Wall of Eyes” with its acoustic strumming and bleary electronics starts things off quietly. “Teleharmonic” might be the closest thing here to a “banger.” “Read the Room,” as mentioned before, is complex and jagged. “Under Our Pillows” connects this album in sound with the previous album, with the sort of riff that comes out of a jam session between really talented and locked-in musical partners. And “Friend of a Friend” reminds me of one of my favorite Radiohead songs, Amnesiac‘s “Pyramid Song.”

“Friend of a Friend” and “Bending Hectic” were both in the encore when I saw them live. Pretty confident move to drop new shit in your encore.

One might say they were “in their bag.”

Tyler: That’s baller.

How’d that show rank for you?

Travis: It was damn good. Probably the best show I saw in 2023, which would also make it the best show I’d seen since before the pandemic at least. I should also note that Thom Yorke was wearing very baggy jeans, like baggy enough they could have been JNCOs. And a wallet chain. Very unexpected.

Something noteworthy about Wall of Eyes: it was produced by someone named Sam Petts-Davies. This is not notable because of who that person is, but because of who that person is not, that being Nigel Godrich, who produced the first Smile album, most Radiohead stuff, and Thom Yorke solo material.

I don’t exactly know what this means for the material, but I’d have to imagine working with someone different might have led to some different, out-of-the-comfort-zone explorations.

Tyler: I know Nigel by reputation, and from his excellent co-production of McCartney’s fine Chaos And Creation In The Backyard. The two clashed, but the work speaks for itself.

Travis: Yeah, he’s an extremely good producer with a ridiculous resume, and Yorke’s most common collaborator (he was even a member of Yorke’s solo band, Atoms for Peace, along with Flea and Joey Waronker, who also happened to be the drummer on that Gallagher Squire album). I do think there are some sounds on this album that fall outside of the already wide array of sounds heard on previous Yorke/Greenwood collaborations. They’ve never really done anything as heavy as “Bending Hectic” before, to my ears. I wonder if the new producer helped bring that out.

Any other highlights or lowlights you’d like to call out?

Tyler: Gotta be rewarding to straight-up rock out after decades of being whatever Radiohead are.

I really have no lowlights. No skippable tracks. I don’t think there’s a way you cut any of these pieces without losing something more than a song. They’ve really created something here, and I believe the economy you mentioned plays a considerable role. Wall Of Eyes could’ve been grueling sprawl. It’s not. It’s a mesmerizing array of hues that nonetheless stays tidy and does not overstay its welcome. Even fifteen minutes more of this might’ve toppled a balance.

I’ve been dipping back into Radiohead’s catalog in recent weeks, inspired by my affection for WOE. It has been a rewarding quest.

Travis: Excellent. As I noted earlier, In Rainbows is my favorite from Radiohead. There they take the experimentation with electronics and textures from Kid A and Amnesiac and marry it to a set of 10 straightforward rock songs with plenty of hooks. I like Kid A and Amnesiac but I think you could take the best tracks from both and create a great single album instead of two good ones. Hail to the Thief is a bit of a mess but has its moments. OK Computer is rightly regarded as a classic. I’m not really big on King of Limbs or A Moon-Shaped Pool. Too clinical and distant for my taste. Lots of people love The Bends but it has never clicked with me—might be one of those you had to be the right age when it came out kind of things.

And if you like Wall of Eyes, I think you’ll find plenty to enjoy on A Light for Attracting Attention. It’s not as cohesive and has more skips but is still pretty strong, was definitely in my top ten for 2022. I also like what I’ve heard from the drummer’s previous band, Sons of Kemet, but it’s a whole other ball of wax that sounds nothing like any of this, a saxophone-tuba-drums trio.

Tyler: Is that trio good?

Travis: Yeah, interesting instrumental stuff. More on the jazz end of the spectrum, which I don’t necessarily feel qualified to talk much about other than knowing what I like when I hear it. I always love a little tuba-as-bass though.

Tyler: Well alright. Travis, I do believe we’ve composed a double-rave. Wall Of Eyes is good. Take it to the bank.

Travis: The Bank of Ears.