Upon first listen, one might mistake
the Smile's debut,
A Light for Attracting Attention, for a
Radiohead album. Considering that band's
Thom Yorke and
Jonny Greenwood (as well as longtime producer
Nigel Godrich) are two of the three core members of this side project, it's not a surprise. Conceived during the COVID-19 lockdown as a way for
Yorke and
Greenwood to jam,
the Smile also features drummer
Tom Skinner of modern jazz group
Sons of Kemet, who invigorates the album with his lively backing and dizzying time signatures. With the help of
Greenwood's friends in the
London Contemporary Orchestra and various jazz artists from
Skinner's orbit, the trio lean into their progressive and psychedelic tendencies here, sounding like an expansive, mind-bending version of
Yorke and
Greenwood's main band. Many of
Radiohead's typical hallmarks -- anxiety, dread, angst, and tension -- are present, with
Yorke delivering reliably passionate performances and heady lyrics across all tracks. The frantic, horn-backed storm "You Will Never Work in Television Again" and the driving, synth-hazed "We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings" channel the anger and frustration heard on Hail to the Thief, winding up as the most aggressive
Yorke has sounded in years. Meanwhile, the elastic groover "The Opposite" and the jittering "Thin Thing" find the trio locked-in as a formidable unit, with
Skinner's drumming building to head-rattling levels as
Greenwood's guitar noodling and
Yorke's detached falsetto push the songs to bewitching heights. On the opposite end of the energy scale, the atmospheric "The Same" envelops like a dense fog and the hypnotic "Pana-vision" weaves haunted piano and drums with
Amnesiac strings, as the ethereal "Speech Bubbles" and the sci-fi sweep of "Waving a White Flag" create widescreen cinematic moments of orchestral beauty. There's something here for fans of any era, but as a reference for longtime devotees,
A Light for Attracting Attention bests
The Eraser as
Yorke's finest non-
Radiohead effort and falls somewhere amongst
A Moon Shaped Pool and
King of Limbs in terms of scope and daring. As such, diehards should be quite pleased with this release: an utterly satisfying set of songs that stands tall on its own, yet could easily climb the ranks against any of
Radiohead's late-era efforts. ~ Neil Z. Yeung