Hey, everyone. Bigthony Grintano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd, and I hope you're doing well. It's time for a review of this new The Smile album, Cutouts.

Yep, this is the latest full-length LP from art rock outfit, The Smile. Actually, their second album to drop this year. If you are out of the know with the Smile lore, let me catch you up. They are pretty much a trio in part masterminded by two of the most beloved names in alternative rock and music broadly. That would be Thom Yorke as well as Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead fame. Of course, joining them on percussion, we have Mr. Tom Skinner, who, before his many contributions to the smile at this point was mostly known as the drummer for the jazz outfit Sons of Kemet.

Now, since the Smile have burst onto the scene, it seems like everyone involved has been really committed to the project. As this truly has been the most consistent output we have seen from Yorke and Greenwood in a long time, even with Radiohead sitting right there, as it was just a few years ago at this point that we got the band's very versatile and creative debut.

Then a few years later in 2024, we got the much more consistent and abstract and haunting Wall of Eyes, which I most definitely enjoyed even more than the first record. Now, not too soon after that, we are getting Cutouts.

Yes, again, two whole albums in one year.

Cutouts is most definitely a less consistent album than its predecessor. However, I will say for the most part, the production is there, the performances are there. If you were drawn personally to many of the beautifully eerie moments packed within the tracklist of Wall of Eyes, I could see you getting down with a lot of this record. Or even if you felt like that album was missing many of the rockier, punchier moments that were on the debut, there's certainly something for you on Cutouts as well. Whether it's the string-kissed art rock and steady beats that are coming through on "Instant Psalm", a track that has almost a gospel or Christian rock vibe to it at points, but without all of the corny baggage that can sometimes come with those genres. But yeah, as far as the Smile's music is concerned, I feel like this track is the closest you could get to a religious experience through that.

Also, if you feel like Tom Skinner's the full percussive power was a little underutilized on Wall of Eyes, you are most definitely going to like "Zero Sum" because this is truly like the rocker of the album. It's groovy as hell, and all over the track, there are just these very colorful, angular, almost mathematic guitar passages. Also across the entirety of the track, Skinner is just going off. The riffs are killer, the choruses stand out as well. Handily, the most thrilling track on the entire record.

Deeper into the album, I feel Tom Skinner continues to play a pretty prominent role with songs and guitar accompaniment that features a very similar mix of influences. I'm just not sure if it's all happening under the guise of the best crop of songs. That's all.

For one, I do enjoy the prog rock-inspired riffs and off-kilter groups of "Colours Fly", but Thom Yorke's meandering lead vocals and the one-dimensional song structure of the track keep it from reaching a climax, I think it should have. Following this, "Eyes and Mouth" also features some pretty complex rhythm and guitar passages coming together, but they feel like a bit of a mismatch with the super smooth and contemplative ballad that they're attached to.

Meanwhile, when it comes to pacing, "Don't Get Me Started" is probably the track on the record that drags the most. It truly lives up to its title because it never really feels like it gets started. It's like the song is just stuck in intro mode the entire time. Not to mention the weirdly defensive lyrics Thom Yorke is coming through with here. "I'm not the villain / Choose someone else / Your force means nothing / You don't get me." Okay, Thom, just because you couch your feelings in these moody abstractions doesn't mean we can't hear you on your high horse.

I could also take or leave "Tiptoe" following this, which sounds like a patience testing musical monologue from a theatre production, something like that. It's pretty while it's on, but doesn't really leave a strong melodic impression.

"The Slip" is another rocker on the album. In fact, given just how spacey and abstract a lot of Wall of Eyes was, I wish Cutouts just went more head-on in this direction just to create more of a contrast. I feel like more variety would have been nice on a record that was released so close to its predecessor. Plus, I love the fact that there are so many interesting and unlikely elements coming together on this song: the very bouncy synth bass; the super angular, almost post-punk-inspired guitars; Thom Yorke's usual croons; and then, of course, Tom Skinner's vaguely exotic nonlinear approach to rhythms. It's almost like we're listening to something that is In Rainbows plus in a way.

Speaking of In Rainbows, though, I feel like that same vibe continues on to "No Words" after this, although it's to a less interesting degree. And then the band tops things off with a somewhat unceremonious closer, "Bodies Laughing", the lyrics of which read like one of those bad dreams where where something tragic or really embarrassing happens to you in front of a crowd of people, which is a compelling angle, even if the music backing all of this up is just okay. Again, on some level, it feels like a paler version of what we already got on In Rainbows years and years and years ago.

But yeah, unfortunately, this Smile album is a bit of a mixed bag. A handful of great tracks here and there which go pretty hard, spacier tracks that, frankly, I don't think would have held a candle to the core songs on Wall of Eyes if they ended up on that record. Then other tracks that just don't see the band coming through with their best songwriting or maybe even painting themselves into a corner, instrumentally a bit.

I'm feeling a light to decent five on this album.

Anthony Fantano. The Smile. Forever.