As with any side-project or solo album by a member of a celebrated band, the first question prompted by the Smile’s debut is: why? There are plenty of reasonable stock answers: an opportunity to do something entirely different; a surfeit of material that either couldn’t be fitted into the schedule of a major band or was perhaps received with something less than enthusiasm by its other members; an invigorating chance to play with different musicians. These are categories that virtually every Radiohead offshoot thus far fits into, from Jonny Greenwood’s award-winning film scores and excursions into modern classical music to Thom Yorke’s solo albums, to Yorke and longstanding Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich’s band Atoms for Peace.
The Smile, however, present more of a conundrum. There have been no accompanying band interviews and little in the way of advance information: Yorke, Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner – best known as a member of jazz quartet Sons of Kemet – just appeared, playing in what looked like a cowshed during the 2021 Glastonbury livestream. To compound any questions about exactly what was going on here, where one project ends and another begins, or what made this different from Radiohead beyond the personnel, they played one song, Skrting on the Surface, which had already been performed by both Radiohead and Atoms for Peace.
