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The Smile review – Thom Yorke on jolly and utterly joyful form

Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner’s pandemic-born band fly free from expectations, taking in everything from krautrock to Afrobeat

While Yorke’s solo albums were clearly a side hustle – opaque, electronic, on the run from tunes – and Greenwood’s film scores something else entirely, the Smile have enough substance to rival the day job. Backlit by an LED screen which seems to manifest the title of new album Wall of Eyes, they take in galloping jazz-rock, neurotic Afrobeat, giallo terror-synths, slinky dub reggae, the hairier end of krautrock and, in the shape of the tremendous, strobe-lit Bending Hectic, a classic slow-burning rock anthem. Half-hidden by his eternally youthful mop of hair, Greenwood wrenches an orchestra of options out of his guitar and hops from synthesiser to piano to harp on Speech Bubbles alone.

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