Released on 4 October, "Cutouts" is the 3rd., studio album by The Smile, under Sam Petts-Davies production. The album has been promoted by the previous singles "Don't Get Me
Started", "The Slip", "Foreign Spies", "Zero Sum" and "Bodies Laughing",
with music videos by the digital artist Weirdcore, and a series of cryptic
messages on social media.
The Smile is the project by Thom York and Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead) with the drummer Tom Skinner, they been performing, recorded in Abbey Road Studios and Greenwood's home studio, just like their previous album "Wall Of Eyes", according to Greenwood, half of this record was done when their previous recording was released, the rest of the album was finished while the band were on tour.
The album title refers an espionage term that Yorke discovered while reading about Russian interference in western politics something like this: "Cutouts are like two-dimensional characters placed to facilitate
backdoor connections with an asset ... I think it was the
two-dimensional nature of the description I got stuck on. A new Cold War world of two-dimensional proxy characters."
So, Yorke felt connected this to the "atomisation and isolation from world events" caused by social media,
and asked: "Why the fuck would we be online with two-dimensional
avatars of each other as if they are really us, and try to engage with
complex issues using two or three sentences?". The Music on this records seems to be more challenging that its predecesor, in where the air and atmosphere is a priority over che conventionalism, with lyrics that addesses capitalism, climate change denial and sociopolitical dread.
Certain tracks such as "Don't Get me Started" as propulsive and synth intense, "Zero Sum" is high-tempo and rythmically busy with and intense lead guitar, the fabulous "Eyes & Mouth" is tremendous, combined with drumbeats and jazzy piano chrods, "Colours Fly" is a combination between certain Radiohead songs from the late 90's and early 00's that has an Egyptian scale and several clouds of noise, "Instant Psalm", features strings with a curious melody and a remarkable acoustic guitar with a pedal note, "Tiptoe" a pinao ballad with orchestral strings,
Compared with its predecessor, "Cutouts"
is relaxed, funkier and loosier, wehich proves the big chemistry these three musicians have honed across two years of touring.
The stage is where many of these songs first premiered, for instante, the pastoral
brooder "Bodies Laughing" written by Yorke more tanh 20 years ago, is the last track of the record and debuted in May 2022, a mere day after the band wrote it, and "Colours Fly" the following month in Paris,
where guest musician Robert Stillman—then playing sax, now on bass
clarinet—triggered the song’s ascent into squealing free-jazz delirium.
Greenwood’s omnivorous curiosity is a big theme here, now this track has its frantic Egyptian scales, reflecting on Greenwood's recent immersion in Middle Eastern music, now "Foreign
Spies," repurposes elements from Greenwood’s 2019 classical piece Horror vacui.
Greenwood used a delay pedal extensively for his guitar parts. "Zero Sum" which was inspired by footage of Microsoft executives dancing at the Windows 95 launch event. "Tiptoe" was played at global promotional listening parties for Wall of Eyes". While the brilliant riff of "Eyes & Mouth" was first performed by Greenwood on
Radiohead's 2016 tour during performances of their song "Talk Show
Host". Tthe burbling panic attack on "The Slip" with
skittering hip-hop beats that resemble readymade sample packs, and gives
us one of his most restlessly percolating grooves on the set.
While Greenwood is full committed to his life’s work of coming
up with mangled guitar riffs that no human has ever played before, Thom Yorke is having his time of his life letting loose with the Smile, at least his lyrics remain consumed with dread. There certain things on the record that the singer appeals off, for instance the sociopolitical dread on "Foreign Spies", late-capitalist
dread on "Zero Sum", climate-denial dread he warns on "The Slip", existential dread on "Instant Psalm" Yorke still has the ability to pull a gorgeous
piano ballad out of thin air like it’s nothing, and the lush, trembling "Tiptoe" is one for the ages. “We are just baggage with no label/You
will find us in the rubble,” the singer croons in communion with the
gentle swells of the London Contemporary Orchestra, offering a grim
prophecy that could refer to any number of world-historical crises.
Cutouts Track List:
1. Foreign Spies
2. Instant Psalm
3. Zero Sum
4. Clours Fly
5. Eyes & Mouth
6. Don't Get Me Started
7. Tiptoe
8. The Slip
9. No Words
10. Bodies Laughing
