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The Smile: Cutouts review – as intricately crafted as Radiohead but with added groove

The trio’s second album this year is full of foreboding but the drumming of Sons of Kemet’s Tom Skinner continues to provide a different dynamic

Although their other band, Radiohead, may not have released anything in eight years, Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke – alongside Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner – seem to have struck a rich vein of form as the Smile. Yorke’s words are typically full of foreboding (“Emptiness has many forms”, “We can’t escape”, “Joyless bones devoured by ants” – although Zero Sum may be the only song released this year to feature repeated mentions of Windows 95 in its lyrics), but there is still a lightness to the accompanying soundscapes, Skinner allowing the band to swing in a way that Radiohead rarely have. The propulsive No Words is driven by an irresistibly sinuous bassline and motorik beat; Don’t Get Me Started comes in on an ominously lurching keyboard motif before Skinner’s skittering polyrhythms take centre stage; closer Bodies Laughing is a relatively straightforward ballad, but no less moving for its simplicity.

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