About

"Wall of Eyes" is the second studio album by the English rock band The Smile, released on 26 January 2024 through XL Recordings. It was recorded in Oxford and Abbey Road Studios, London, with the producer Sam Petts-Davies.

The Smile developed the songs while on tour for their first album, "A Light for Attracting Attention" (2022). 

As with the first album, you would be hard-pushed to describe Wall of Eyes as anything other than Radiohead-esque. But for an album so thick with disquiet and gloom, there is a strange sense of ease about much of it. And perhaps that’s the sound of Yorke and Greenwood making music detached from the expectations and sense of import that freights every release by Radiohead. There are lovely, tumbling chord sequences and vaguely Latin rhythms underpinning both the title track and Teleharmonic. Friend of a Friend unexpectedly carries something of the relaxed charm of an early 70s singer-songwriter album – the gorgeous tune is almost McCartney-esque – albeit strafed by edgily discordant horror-movie strings. The structure of 'I Quit' should feel familiar to anyone conversant with Radiohead’s back catalogue – it’s one of those songs that drifts along, muttering to itself as if lost in its own despondency, driven by its bassline – except this time, it’s bisected by a straightforwardly beautiful orchestral arrangement.

It’s music that feels inventive, but naturally so. It’s imaginative and viscerally thrilling, one of the best things Yorke and Greenwood have put their names to in at least a decade. Like the rest of Wall of Eyes, it really doesn’t feel interstitial, like a placeholder until the definite article reappears. What that portends for Radiohead’s future – if anything – is arguable; the album’s quality is not. — (via The Guardian)

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Label: XL Recordings
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: Jan 26, 2024
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock
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File under: Indie / Alternative