Once again the lyrical and emotional texture of “Wall of Eyes”, this second chapter in the history of The Smile, is the key to understanding the entire album.
Eight tracks for 45 minutes where Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and co always manage to trace a cloudy emotional territory full of fear, anger, desperation and boredom.
Night photographs full of restlessness and full of oblique characters and subjects who wander with natural and sometimes even funny movements in a swirling, disconnected, improbable and dystopian world.
Musically there is all the experimental and muffled charm of the band made of lovely and falling chords and sounds that range from electronics to vaguely Latin rhythms, from string-rich orchestrations to obsessive and saturated atmospheres.
Among the songs one cannot fail to mention it Bending Hectican epic eight-minute piece which is a bit of a summary of all the previous songs.
The song embodies the dynamism of “Wall of Eyes” taking it to its extreme and drawing on the techniques most often found in post-rock records. Bending guitar notes played in a ruba tempo find their place as Skinner’s drums come in to define the song’s direction. Just when a sense of normality begins to pervade us we are subjected to a penetrating cacophony of strings that destabilizes us and takes over, finally giving way to the loudest, most confusing and cathartic climax of the project.
As with the first album, it is difficult and complex to describe “Wall of Eyes” as something different from Radiohead and its world. The consequent question arises spontaneously: but what will be the future of Radiohead? Maybe no one or maybe it’s not even right to ask anymore, because defining The Smile, understood only as a “Radiohead derivation”, would diminish the entire essence of the band and its musical journey.
Perhaps it’s best to look at Radiohead’s past and The Smile’s present as an evolutionary whole.
Then we’ll see what happens!
SCORE TRACK BY TRACK: Rating 8.00
Wall Of Eyes – Rating 7.50
Teleharmonic – Rating 7.50
Read The Room – Rating 7.50
Under Our Pillows – Rating 7.50
Friend Of A Friend – Rating 8.00
I Quit – Rating 7.50
Bending Hectic – Rating 8.00
You Know Me! – Rating 7.50
THE VOTES OF OTHERS
Uncut: 9.00
Pitchfork: 8.50
The Guardian: 8.00
Clash Music: 8.00
Nme: 8.00
Rolling Stone: 8.00
Mojo: 8.00
TO LISTEN NOW
Wall Of Eyes – Friend Of A Friend – Bending Hectic
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
You shouldn’t miss anything!!!
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