Cutouts (2024) - The Smile

Any fans of Radiohead out there, I think it's time we face facts. Radiohead are not coming back. It has been NINE YEARS since their last album, during which time all of its members have consistently released new music on the reg. Of course, the band itself would never do anything as naff as actually announce their retirement or a farewell tour. In fact, if you were to draw up the archetypal way for Radiohead to disband, this would be it: just cease to exist, form new bands, put out music and let the masses slowly figure it out. 

After all, this is the same band that decided to do no marketing for 2000's 'Kid A' (joke was on them, it went straight to #1 in the charts) and randomly release an album online for free (again, joke is on them, most people paid for it and made them rich). It's over. Simple as that. 

However, all is not lost. Because, if you pay attention, the two most driving creative forces behind the band (Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood) have moved on to form a new band together and, if you re-frame The Smile from a side project to 'hang on, this is actually the new Radiohead' then there is much hope to be had. Indeed they have been putting out consistently great albums for the past two years now. The kings are dead. Long live the kings. Or something like that. 

Which brings us to their recently released third album 'Cutouts'. 10 tracks deep and containing all the swirling, whirling, moody, dreary, atmospheric touches you would expect from two musicians who have basically created that genre as their own. It opens with 'Foreign Spies' which sounds like someone singing from a long-forgotten lunar base while the world gently burns below them. It ambles along at a snail's pace and, like most of Thom Yorke's work since about 2003 onwards, draws you in the more you listen to it. When he croons 'In a beautiful world, we are melting" you can't help but agree.

Of course, Jonny Greenwood has been responsible for many film scores over the years and is essentially a musical savant so one thing pretty much guaranteed over the past decade has been the inventive and luscious use of strings. A great example of this is the next track on the album 'Instant Psalm'. At first it sort of plods along before, slowly over time, a swell of strings start to make themselves heard, eventually blossoming into something quite beautiful. Again, this is basically their genre at this point so none of this should come as a surprise. 

For the next two tracks, however, the strings are put aside for some good old guitar. If you go by the pace set by the first two tracks on this album, 'Zero Sum' feels like a banger. It instantly strikes as one of those songs that Thom Yorke would be convulsing around his mic stand to live, Jonny Greenwood hanging his hair over his telecaster with his little wristguard flying like a fist of fury. 

The middle eastern flare of 'Colours Fly' hums along at a moody and cinematic clip and Thom sounds appropriately angry on vocals. That is followed by 'Eyes & Mouth' which is, by their standards, a somewhat summery sounding number and is one of the highlights of the album. The vocal arrangements, piano stabs and Jonny's tinkling guitars over the top really make for a lovely track. 

It should be mentioned at this point that there is a third member of The Smile and that is Tom Skinner on drums. He does an admirable job of keeping together the weird skiticisms of Yorke and Greenwood and, you somehow feel, stops it from entirely descending into avant garde indie jazz. That said, for the next two tracks on the album he might as well put the kettle on as we descend into full avant garde indie jazz. I suppose you could argue there is some drumbeat in 'Don't Get Me Started' but it feels programmed and the track - the longest on the album - meanders all over the place but, let's face it, this is what we want from this band. You're not here to belt out pop-classics, you're here to stare out of the window on a rainy day and get swept away by the bloody cinema of it all. 

Which brings us to my personal highlight of the album 'Tiptoe'. This track has been previewed live a few times by Thom Yorke, most notably on a BBC6 performance, which I happened to catch on iPlayer (NERD). This is a ballad, in a sense, but it is pure atmosphere. The strings, the piano, the vocals. This track is custom-made for watching the world buzz by while you sip a coffee and wonder what will become of us all. It's not dissimilar to other works in their canon, such as 'Pyramid Song' or 'Codex', or 'Skirting on the Surface', in the fact that it's a beautiful, romantic, piece of work. But certainly not in the traditional sense. 

'The Slip' brings back the full band and qualifies, again by the pace set so far, as another banger (ish). It's okay. It could easily be skipped and you wouldn't be missing much. 'No Words' steps the pace up even further. In the words of Ned Flanders, my beatbox was almost turned all the way up to rhumba. This song is great though, the synths in the background add some weirdness and again Tom Skinner does a great job of drumming to a level where you don't even notice how much he's driving the song. 

The album closes with 'Bodies Laughing' which is almost quintessential The Smile. It's dark, slightly ominous, slightly uplifting and pretty much the perfect closer for the set. Which leaves you satisfied and eager to start the journey again. 

As with just about everything they've done since The Bends, this album grows on you over time. Nothing feels emphasized. There is no 'Don't Look Back in Anger' in sight. As is typical by now, their music creeps up on you and drags you through some sort of mental enchanted forest where the trees could be your friend but could also kill you. You're not quite sure. I'm not even sure it's fair to review it after only a few listens as it's rich and dense enough to warrant much more. However, one thing is for certain and that is that if Radiohead is dead and this is what we're left with, then that seems like a decent compromise. With this third release, it appears that The Smile can no longer be considered a side-project at all, which is a good thing. 

★★★☆☆

JB.