Review: The Smile – Cutouts

The Smile
Cutouts
XL Recordings
Street: 10.04
The Smile = Radiohead + Black Midi 

The prophet has returned. Like Avatar Aang returning when the world needed him most, legendary musician Thom Yorke returns, leading The Smile’s second studio album (and second of this year) Cutouts. Filling out the band is fellow Radiohead member and acclaimed guitarist Jonny Greenwood, along with percussionist Tom Skinner. Getting the world ready for the project, the group released four singles: “Foreign Spies,” “Zero Sum,” “Don’t Get Me Started” and “Bodies Laughing.” With guitar work sounding sonically similar to greats such as George Harrison, along with the usual mysterious haze that coats most of Thom Yorke’s artistic pieces, Cutouts comes off as not the groups best-ever material, but still some of the best music you will hear this year regardless. 

Recorded in the same sessions as Wall Of Eyes, released earlier this year, one could probably compare these two projects to Radiohead’s KID A and Amnesiac — the band played snippets of Cutouts all the way back in 2021. Influences of Kavinsky and Daft Punk with synth and keys work of the past but with drum machines from the previously mentioned iconic Kid A make cameos here and there across the project, especially on the opening track “Foreign Spies.” Off-putting and weird guitar parts coated in delay remind of Black Midi on tracks such as “Zero Sum,” which remind us why Jonny Greenwood is as acclaimed as he is. Vocally, Thom Yorke sounds as haunting as ever. While Yorke has always had an animalistic,primal quality to his vocals, his tone seems to be evolving in a way almost like Johnny Cash and David Bowie did in their later lives — hopefully this sunset arc for Yorke (which arguably goes all the way back to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool release) lasts much longer than those previously mentioned.  

It’s impossible to decontextualize Radiohead from Yorke and Greenwood; Cutouts (and The Smile as a whole) comes off as a great success,  yet not as focused as the members’ counterparts. Yorke manages to cook exceptionally in this pseudospace, but this leads to the songs kinda just existing as a vibe-off. While all tracks on the album sound absolutely fantastic, they somehow manage to just feel not as necessary in their discography when compared to their massive library of work. If any other musician released this album, it would instantly be applauded as their most pivotal, inspired and creative work,  when The Smile does it, a drop is added to the bucket of their songs that could be played next to them.

In reality, I can’t help but recommend this album. If you’re a long-time fan, you know what to expect and (likely) are at a point (as am I) where Yorke can do no wrong. However, if the sound of this project excites you and you have never caught a listen of this verby, experimental world I would honestly suggest checking out Radiohead’s In Rainbows or alternatively, The Smile’s first release A Light For Attracting Attention. In a weird turn of events, The Smile managed to simultaneously cast me into two separate ballots – Same ‘ol Same ‘ol but still probably a top 10 release of the year. 

In other Thom Yorke and company related news, the band signed off for their 2003 release Hail To The Thief to be reworked for a production of Hamlet in the UK in 2025 while Colin Greenwood contributed to the new Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds album Wild God, is hopping on tour with the band and simultaneously working to publish his photography book “How To Disappear: A Portrait of Radiohead” this October. –Jake Fabbri

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