the smile album review

1. The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention ALBUM REVIEW
2. The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention ALBUM REVIEW
3. The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention – Best Thom Yorke Ever?
4. The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention ALBUM REVIEW
5. “The Smile” Concert Review- Better than Radiohead?: (Massey Hall, Toronto, November 26, 2022)
6. A Poetic Inquiry into The Smile: “A Light for Attracting Attention” Review
7. The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention FIRST REACTION (Part 1)

The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention ALBUM REVIEW

hi everyone anthony fantano here the,internets busiest music nerd and its,time for a review of this new smile,album a light for attracting attention,yes this is the debut full-length album,of the recently formed musical project,the smile featuring drummer of the band,sons of kemet tom skinner and also two,dudes from a little-known band called,radio head johnny greenwood as well as,tom york even nigel godrich is in the,mix doing production on this one as he,has on many a radiohead project the band,teased the hell out of this 13-track,project with six singles that portrayed,a wide range of sounds the track you,will never work in television again is a,very peppy alt-rock throwback that,sounds like,something that tom and the boys would,have aggressively recorded back in the,90s the whole track is electrifying the,building intensity behind the drums the,driving guitars plus i didnt know tom,really had this kind of vocal,performance in him anymore at this point,now even though theres no other track,on this lp that sounds quite like this,one it does have a characteristic about,it that holds true for the majority of,this album that being the slowly,building and swelling layers of whatever,instrumentation are brought into the,fold as the track is progressing in this,case its the woodwinds that kind of,call out chaotically at various points,of the song which i love theres also,the meditatively groovy the smoke where,toms chilly falsettos punctuate drums,guitar lines and horn sections that,sound like a mellowed out version of,some 70s west african funk rock fusion,skinners beats on this track strike a,perfect balance between sounding relaxed,but also very tight and johnny,greenwoods trademark arrangements are a,beautiful touch to the song too i do,wish the track structure-wise had a,stronger conclusion to it but its a,great listen while its on then there,was skirting on the surface which,honestly sounds kind of like a,bad demo from the in rainbows era with,all these linear guitar lines and,grooves which uh in theory are nice but,the drumming is far too loose to kind of,carry the track rhythmically not only,that but the guitar work is,kind of sloppy i guess at least the,arrangements sort of cover up whatever,blemishes were getting off of that,really tom yorks vocal performance is,the only thing i found to be truly,redeeming about the cut but its not,like he is really pushing himself out of,his comfort zone on this track in any,way this kind of sounds like a song that,he sung years ago at this point i think,in rainbows fans will have a lot more,fun getting lost in the incredibly tight,and endless grooves of thin thing,meanwhile panavision even though this,track has some linear qualities to it,too it does conjure a very different,sensation slowly falling into this,twisted and depressive spiral of,ascending piano phrases and massive,orchestral hits we do get another ending,on this track that sort of trails off,but at least the first half is a quite a,potent listen then free in the knowledge,is a somewhat tragic but also hopeful,acoustic cut that has a high drama,floydian quality to it a somewhat,hippie-esque message of unity packed,into the song too with tom singing about,people fighting but eventually coming to,this realization that there is a greater,power or evil that is working against,all of us the song does have some,beautiful instrumentation as well as a,powerful performance attached to it,which i think definitely overcomes,whatever bits of it are kind of cliche,and from here that leaves us with the,deep cuts on this record the same and,the opposite are a decent one-two punch,for the entire lp to kick off with the,former with its patient and throbbing,electronics building up into this,intense sense of dread once again with,images of people fighting with tom york,calling out about how were all the same,and we all want the same things which,im not exactly sure what hes referring,to is it the general political unrest of,the last several years or is this more,of an allegory i mean there is certainly,truth to what hes saying because as,people i think we do have many of the,same core desires and needs but the,shortcoming from there is just in the,fact that this track is not a,sociological exploration as to where,these divisions come from what informs,them i will say this though the song,sounds horrifying,it nails that down and then the opposite,the incredible grooves on this track are,presented in a somewhat surreal and,psychedelic way with all these cavernous,echoes and sound effects orbiting the,grooves it gets especially discordant,and exciting through a series of noisy,passages in the second half then speech,bubbles and open the floodgates are two,kind of chill numbers in the middle of,the lp the latter kind of sounds like a,bland piano backed hold over from the,moonshape pool era it is moody and its,serene for sure but theres not a lot,about it textually or melodically that,sticks with me but speech bubbles does,undergo quite the transformation across,its run time the bear organs and gentle,drums right at the intro kind of set,things up for what feels like its its,going to be a religious experience the,guitar arpeggios and string passages,that follow in the midpoint with tom,yorks very desolate and weary vocals do,a great job of keeping the track afloat,from there and then oddly enough in the,last leg we have a lot of vocal and horn,harmonies that are reminiscent of like,an early grizzly bear lp and are pulled,off very well from here we have a few,explosive treats on the back end that i,like hair dryer which also has a kind of,slow burn going for its progression but,the rhythms are just mad the speed and,the tightness but also the ease with,which they flow just show how essential,tom skinner was for this project all of,the guitar passages from there solid,great but the build into tom yorks,final refrain of look at the pretty,night its fantastic stellar easily one,of the catchiest moments on this lp and,then we dont know what tomorrow brings,shows the band going in almost a new,wave or post-punk direction with the,grooves and ferocity coming off the base,and the synths theres a decent hook to,it but a lot like you will never work in,television again much of the song is,fueled off of its very powerful and in,raw performance and energy and it works,to some things up i would say that this,album is a bit of a mixed bag but a good,mixed bag while a lot of the tracks here,may vary pretty widely in terms of like,instrumental palette and stuff like that,a lot of the guitar work and drums as,well as greenwoods arrangements and tom,yorks vocals do tie things up,effectively enough to where this album,is a pretty consistent listen not to,mention a lot of those linear song,structures and the song writing and,performances in production are solid,across the record too really as good as,anything that you would hear on any,modern radiohead record there were just,a handful of tracks that i thought were,merely just okay and the closer was,especially off in my opinion but yeah i,would say this record is a pretty,essential listen for any radiohead fan,and i would uh easily give it a decent,seven,tran position have you given this thing,a listen did you love it did you hate it,what would you rate it youre the best,youre the best what should i review,next hit the like if you like please,subscribe and please dont cry hit the,bell as well over here next to my head,is another video you can check out hit,that up or the link to subscribe to the,channel anthony fantano the smile the,smile,the forever

The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention ALBUM REVIEW

[Music],i said not so,fast,[Music],so i know what youre thinking right,you wanted the kendrick review,i know believe me its coming im,working on it all right however this is,an album that i had been waiting for for,a little while now its your boy raymond,here and today were going to be talking,about the new smile album with which is,a band composed of tom skinner johnny,greenwood and tom york as most of you,probably already know if youve been,watching this channel for a little while,im a huge radiohead fan and i have been,waiting for,a new radiohead album since,well since moonshape pool to be honest,with you i guess this is probably the,closest that were going to get how this,trio came about i honestly dont really,know i think tom said in one of the,interviews uh like about like a month,ago,that um they were jamming out together,at some point in the studio with johnny,and um i guess they just decided to do a,couple tracks and see what happened you,know just messing around and i guess,they,had finally decided that they wanted to,take it in a direction of possibly doing,an album together and uh here we are,this album is of course called a light,for attracting attention a very,interesting title and i feel like um,with the themes that are discussed that,tom discusses on this album lyrically as,well as the sonic qualities of it i feel,like the title is very appropriate a lot,of the sonic qualities on this album are,just,so gorgeous but also haunting at the,same time very reminiscent of a,radiohead album and rather reminiscent,actually of a little bit older radiohead,i would say you know this album really,stems a lot from the sounds coming off,of in rainbows um as well as moonshape,pool i guess a little bit probably a,little bit also of okay computer as well,i would say very groovy but also very,very orchestrated instrumentals,obviously you have johnny greenwood,doing the orchestral arrangements and,everything like that like hes been,doing um and then you have tom singing,of course while also doing guitar tom,skinners drumming is just absolutely,perfect i love it so much um i think i,like it honestly a little bit more than,phillip selways im sorry i know some,of the radiohead fans are gonna be,pissed about that i think i do enjoy his,drumming just a little bit more he just,is able to find this pocket in the,groove that i think philip wasnt really,not that he wasnt able to do but i,think he just you know exposes the,pocket and is able to find a groove just,a lot more a lot more fluidly and a lot,more in like an interesting way it could,be it could be the mixing on this,project because the drums and the bass,are just so prevalent on this whole,album personally thats just what it,sounds like for me,obviously if its going to be um if,youre going to have tom york on the,lyrics and as well as the singing then,youre obviously going to be hearing,some uh social and political commentary,stuff obviously you have like the first,single which is you will never work in,television again tom said in an,interview like a little while ago that,it was actually a very straightforward,track and it was a reference essentially,to the harvey weinstein thing basically,which is no surprise honestly that they,would tackle subject matter like that,obviously its tom york that was,essentially our first little taste of,what we would get for this album then it,was the smoke then it was um i believe,it was skirting on the surface i want to,say and then we got like panavision i,guess like the only thing that i,would have preferred that they did was i,would just wish they wouldnt have,released so many singles leading up to,this album release uh they essentially,released like half of the tracks,beforehand there was like five or six,singles that came out beforehand that i,feel like had the potential to sort of,ruin,the authenticity of the album i guess,just like a little bit just because it,felt like it most of it had already been,out and i already kind of got an idea of,what the sound of the record was going,to be like even the album cuts here i,feel like just add so much more as well,to the singles that we got theres a,couple of the album cuts that i think,are actually my favorite off this album,and those are of course being thin thing,and a hair dryer i think the groove on,thin thing is i think probably my,favorite off the album the way that,johnny and tom skinner of course the way,that johnny and tom are able to,fluctuate with johnnys you know,guitar picking his very rhythmic and,very um light flourishes of guitar,picking with toms drumming and just in,this really thick pocket and then weve,got these bass grooves as well that come,in that just complement it even more and,then tom just sort of floating on top,with these very echoey very haunting,vocals as per usual it just goes through,so many different passages it feels like,and the song feels like it goes on up,for like much longer than it actually,does its just so interesting and it,just gets you really in the headspace of,that groove i could listen to it like so,many different times it feels like a,whole experience in one track toms,lyrics here of course sort of invoke i,guess his perspective of like a being or,like a woman essentially that is sort of,like manipulative,um abusive essentially like thin thing,you know sort of like a woman but i,think it maybe dives a little bit deeper,than that i think hes probably talking,about an entity not just like a,relationship that he might have had,previously so yeah the lyrics are super,interesting like first shell pull your,fingers off and then shell pull your,toes making mushrooms out of men,uh to a face of solid gold you know just,a lot of these really interesting,metaphors and a lot of these uh a lot of,these like visual phrases that tom,always of course likes to throw in uh,just to create just to add to the,the element into the atmosphere of the,track and its just really gorgeous and,really interesting to listen to as is i,mean pretty much anything that radiohead,does as well and the other one too a,hairdryer which i found was interesting,the drums and the bass groove are just,so like,thick and are just so rapid on this it,has this momentum to it that i think uh,some of the other tracks dont,necessarily have a lot of the tracks on,this album are very groovy but a,hairdryer has this sort of pushing,forward momentum that isnt so much of,like a back beat but its like very,rapid very moving forward tom usually,tends to write these songs from like the,perspective of him a little bit more,reflective this time whereas on some of,the previous radiohead material uh he,tends to write almost as like this this,giant metaphorical,thesis basically and its not,necessarily coming from like a personal,emotional perspective its all its more,coming from like these very grand world,and universal views and like these very,philosophical points of view that he has,on the world,um whereas these feel a little bit more,personal to him especially a lot of the,things that hes talking about here,which are very similar in terms of the,stuff that he uh discusses on a lot of,the radiohead projects this just feels a,little bit more um intimate and i guess,would be the best word to describe it,feels like youre really there with them,in the studio and it feels like youre,essentially sitting with tom as hes,reading you these passages and as hes,singing to you,with these very echoey vocals going on,throughout like the entire project its,just a gorgeous record honestly i i,wasnt expecting anything less but im,glad they at least met that expectation,and some every song here is just,gorgeous i would say some of my,favorites would be like thin thing uh,you will never work in television again,the smoke,skirting on the surface which i think is,just a beautiful closer i think it wraps,up the project really nicely and as well,as the same which is a really really,dark and almost uh haunting opener to,this project but i think it just w

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The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention – Best Thom Yorke Ever?

hello welcome back,i hope i find the right words in this,video,because we are talking about something,very very special in my opinion,we are talking about the smile,a light for attracting attention,we have here two members of of radiohead,tom york and johnny greenwood,and,we have tom skinner who is a member,or has been a member of sons of chemet,and sons of kemet,did one,of the best albums last year on on the,impulse label,black to the future,if you havent,get into this album do yourself a favor,and do it,this is a stunning record its its,brilliant i put down,links in the video description below if,you want to dig into it its,unbelievable good and now we have him,and the big important part of radiohead,together,and they,say on the,on the hype sticker,they say,debut album from new group so that,sounds as if they will go on together,the smile,comprising radioheads tom york and john,greenwood and sons of kemetz tom skinner,limited edition,yellow,vinyl,lets go,briefly,uh into this editions content,and then talk about the,video of the video and then talk about,the music and the sound of it and we are,quite up for something i promise you,that,okay the jacket,okay,when it comes to its sturdiness,but of course extremely,extremely beautiful,when it comes to,the design of it,i really like it,very artful,beautiful cover art,we get,beautiful printed inner sleeves,and the lyrics,for both but of course with the downside,of the not polylined,stuff,here is the inner sleeve for the other,record we are talking about and,double album,we go into the vinyl and i show you all,the labels because they are different,and they are beautiful,here is,the disc one with the labels,on yellow vinyl,and here we have,disk,number two,okay,now thats for the content,and now for the record the music the,mastering,the mastering did nobody less than bob,ludwig,so this is of course,something,something special in my opinion,and very promising,that pressing took place,at gz,and,you know what from now on and i say so,what they do great stuff,because,the sound of this release,wow,10,period 10,unbelievable,you know,we are talking here musically,about,quite,quite this electronic rock,electronic,atmospheric rock,we know from from tom york solo projects,and and the later radiohead,but somehow,its its its more,its sometimes very layered this music,and and the layers are shifting in the,room,and flow through the room back and forth,left and right,and they kept this,so,incredible good,naturally,beautifully,that,unbelievable,really really unbelievable,you know this johnny greenwood,the drama hes hes a living metronome,but in a good sense not not artificial,its its,what what he gives to this compositions,and and,and when they add layer by layer and the,singing and,the voice is,hard to describe,but,i think most of you,know tom york and and radiohead i hope a,lot of you know sons of kamet,and this is,an incredible,outstanding trio,as i said,the quality of this record the sound of,this record,is far above,every other release,new release 2022 release,not reissues not remasters,far above,every,ive heard so far this year,ive heard so far in 21,unbelievable,they they really really really did their,job sorry if im so overwhelmed but you,know,me and my einstein components we really,had a celebration,while we we got through this album,i would go as far and also musically,that this release would have been album,of the year in every year,since im back into vinyl which is mid,mid,2016.,im sure i would have picked this in,every year,as album of the year,wow,of course this,this is of course also my kind,my kind of music you know this mixture,of rock and electronic and ambient and,and,and and when they,when they do it in this quality,and this trio,unbelievable stuff i hope a lot of you,have this already and please tell me do,you like it as much as me,breathtaking,again i will put down links for you down,below,if you,didnt consider it please go to,some place where you can,listen to it or whatever,fantastic stuff,fantastic,sorry but but what what what can i do,what can i say,yeah im quite sure,the spot of album of the year,is probably taking if not,my god 2022 would be an awesome year,which it is by the way,so many great new releases,and um there are still some coming,maybe its an historical year in music i,dont know,for me it looks like it what do you,think,what do you think,is this an far far far above average,above average year,in in music its extremely difficult to,to say that when you are,in the midst of it and and when you,dont have the,years,in between them and lets say 2026,its its easier to to say that but my,feeling is that this isnt,way above,average year in in music and the smile,the light for attraction attention is,cant get better,okay thank you for your time see you on,the next one bye

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The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention ALBUM REVIEW

punk revolution now today we are doing a,what the heck is this the smile tom york,of radiohead johnny greenwood of,radiohead and then,tom skinner of sons of kemet thats cool,im excited to see this tom skinner is a,fantastic drummer sons of kemet is like,a experimental,afro jazz group that makes amazing music,but can i be honest i hope,ed obrien and colin greenwood the other,you know the drummer and bassist of,radiohead,dont have their feelings hurt that they,were excluded from this project and,replaced for a little bit for with with,tom skinner thats just me being pretty,neurotic im sure theyre fine im sure,they probably didnt even want to be a,part of this project and theyre,probably their egos are okay i mean,theyre in one of the most critically,acclaimed bands of all time but still,its like kind of a weird little head,scratcher like what how am i supposed to,process this when radiohead you know tom,york and johnny greenwood just frankly,just are like,such a map i mean tom york and don,thats like what radiohead is sometimes,it feels like its just those two so it,feels like this is gonna be a radio,radio head,spin-off album a little bit somethings,called a light for attracting attention,im assuming its gonna be kind of like,a radiohead with maybe some more jazz,influence obviously given the band,members i dont know yet lets start by,taking a look at the album,cover,this is an interesting album artwork,because it actually does feel to me like,a blend of radiohead artwork like those,scribbles and stuff you can kind of just,see the way its like filled in with,those scribbles something i feel like,ive seen in a lot of radiohead artwork,and then i dont know im also kind of,picking up like some sons of chemet,artwork as well like if you take a look,at the sons of temit artwork theres,definitely an emphasis on the fact that,this is afro jazz jazz with a lot of,african percussion emphasis i feel like,this sm the smile album artwork does,kind of give me a little bit of like,i dont know like african arts kind of,vibes as well combined with radiohead,which is interesting not something i,necessarily really would expect tom york,to venture into making afro jazz i mean,obviously johnny greenwood is a,guitarist with a lot of jazz influence,in his guitar playing thats what i,think makes him one of the best guitar,players of all time johnny greenwood,sounds like a jazz guitarist playing,rock music you could you know if you,learn how to play jazz guitar youre,going to be a better guitarist than any,other rock and roll musician because,jazz is really hard and johnny greenwood,is able to go,dude,because hes playing up and down jazz,chords so i dont know its like even,though i dont really think of tom york,as um,as someone who who could venture into,afro jazz and uh you know this album,ultimately doesnt have it doesnt,really sound afro jazz at all the fact,that it is some jazz musicians kind of,like uh bringing in more jazz,a jazz music,vagina,a jazz musician,coming into radioheads world is not,that mind-blowing or unforeseen or,anything but i will say ultimately you,know we once you actually get into the,music it frankly does sound i mean this,is,two-thirds radiohead one-third sons of,kemet and it does sound a lot more like,radiohead than it does sound anything,like sons of chemic this definitely,sounds like we are hearing i mean when,you combine johnny greenwoods very,distinct guitar playing like i said hes,got that jazzy hes clearly got a jazzy,background hes got this intellectual,minor,kind of like just real like,thought just thought provoking kind of,like just like just nerdy emo not emo in,the giant like emo as in literally,emotional guitar jazz playing,rock with tom york whos like just so,distinctly like i mean lets be real,sometimes when tom york is singing its,literally the most beautiful thing,youve ever heard like,but sometimes you just kind of slap in,the slap them in the face because its,like dude,your voice is too beautiful its kind of,weird i want to listen to some rock and,roll and thats i mean thats thats,like once you combine those two very,distinct musicians into one album it,just sounds like a spin-off radiohead,album but there are some notable,distinctions which i will get into but i,just want to add one more thing this is,also being produced by nigel godrich who,is the producer of like all of,radioheads albums and its very clear,in terms of the way nigel godrich got,the drums set up for recording and,mixing,uh tom skinners drums in this album,hes using like the same drum tones as,the drum tones and uh radioheads other,albums so the fact that its a different,drummer because the drum tones are the,same as radioheads other albums it just,sounds again like thats,reinforcing,the fact that it sounds a lot like,radiohead and its not necessarily like,the drumming its a different drummer,whos got a jazz background but its not,like the drumming is dramatically,different from radioheads typical,drumming its its a different drummer,for sure but really it just it just,sounds like,kind of like a radiohead side project,there are some notable differences like,i said though i really like how this,album does kind of have like a bit more,of like a staccato feel staccato is like,a music term for when things are real,like like,you know what i mean like i feel like a,lot of radioheads music is just like you,know chord,chord,chord,karma police you know that kind of just,like like letting the chord ring out,while tom yorks singing this feels more,like you know johnny greenwood is,getting to really kind of like explore,like uh,and thats cool i mean its got poly,rhythms its got like all these kind of,weird its definitely rock and roll some,people might want to call it math rock,because it gets polyrhythmic and just,because it does have,this these math rock has a lot of jazz,influence in the chords as well so you,combine poly rhythms with some some,jazzy chord progressions in a rock and,roll setting some people might want to,say its math rock i dont know if i,would call it math rock but thats just,kind of an interesting thing we havent,really seen from radiohead coming,together here and i mean its pretty,badass its very some of it sometimes,its very angular and like kind of post,punky actually which is pretty cool so,johnny green was guitar work kind of,steals the show for me tom yorks,beautiful soaring vocals on top of it,sounds great as always it always sounds,great but it just sounds like kind of,more like a moon shaped pool in rainbows,hail to the thief kind of influence,there it does sound like i mean it does,sound like that honestly there is the,song panavision which does bring in this,very jazzy keyboard with a very,interesting rhythm that frankly reminds,me a lot of pyramid song from amnesiac,because pyramid song does kind of do,that same thing with that that jazzy,beautiful piano that does kind of that,song kind of crescendos with bringing a,string section in this album also brings,in some strings as well very beautiful,uh some some some synths and stuff,its kind of interesting because at,times this album is very meditative as,if youre listening to the king of limbs,and rainbows hail to the thief more kind,of just focused on creating like a like,a beautiful atmosphere so you think of,like the more beautiful songs from those,from those albums but then there are,times where it does get a little bit,rock and roll and frankly i do like the,rock and roll moments like especially in,this album you will never work in,television again is probably my favorite,song off this album because it does have,such like a drive to it like danny,its like kind of like you could just,hear tom york just like cuss hes saying,cuss words its like oh my god tom yeah,we got some like we got some like you,know real like rock and roll the bends,obviously we can go back to the bends,for some radiohead rock but like the,bands was very like intellectual,intellectual like sad rock and its,still rock

“The Smile” Concert Review- Better than Radiohead?: (Massey Hall, Toronto, November 26, 2022)

thank you for auditing the always,positive new music review show hosted by,French Professor who asks the question,is the smile as good as Radiohead in,concert,no thats a ridiculous question right I,mean it must be a ridiculous question,Ive seen hundreds of shows and I,personally think that Radiohead is the,best band Ive ever seen in concert that,includes the great jam bands Grateful,Dead and the fish that includes Nirvana,and a bunch of past greats that includes,Prince that includes so many great,artists that Ive seen live and I think,Radiohead with its combination of great,songwriting amazing performance,exuberance virtuosity all of it coming,together with a sort of loose and,powerful and tight feel all at once,nothing has ever been as good as,Radiohead live so why would I even ask,you if the smile the solo project of two,members of Radiohead uh Johnny Greenwood,Tom York along with the drummer of Sons,of Kemet Tom Skinner,why would I even ask and am I just am I,just trolling trolling for clicks I got,you,I dont edit my videos so youre just,gonna have to watch me drink a little,bit of water now,am I just trolling for clicks,no because the answer isnt actually no,the smile is not as good as Radiohead,but I would say that,they are as good as Radiohead when,Radiohead is not at 100 percent,does that make sense so you know Ive,seen Radiohead maybe five or six times,the first show I saw was back in 95 in,Boston at the Paradise Lounge very small,show,the last show I saw of them,unfortunately was uh the Haiti concert,in LA so you know Ive seen them on many,tours Ive seen them many times,and theyre not always firing on all all,cylinders not always,and thats how good the smile is which,isnt actually an insult its actually,High Praise,what makes the smile so great and to see,them live is that it is actually I think,the only authentic version of the smile,itself,the album is great I really enjoy the,album I did a review of it you can check,it out Ill put a Ill put a link to it,at the end of this video,I like it its a great album but it,feels like an album of a band that you,should see Live Like A Grateful Dead,album or a fish album a king gizzard,like you feel like the strength of the,music comes from people who like each,other excellent musicians goofing around,unencumbered by the legacy of Radiohead,playing together and what makes these,three musicians so great is that they,have that virtuosity and taste listening,to virtuoso musicians can be great but,if they dont have taste its just sort,of noodling around its notes for notes,its time signatures for time signatures,so its,almost of the smile is seeing them live,so I hate to say this because I dont,want to encourage fomo you know I missed,the Moon shaped to a moon shaped pool,tour,hell I missed the Okay computer tour,you know we all miss stuff and I dont,want to give you terrible fomo but I,will say that if you havent seen the,smile in concert and I dont mean,watching clips on YouTube I dont mean,listening to bootlegs I mean if you,havent been in the audience watching,the smile you dont know what the smile,is youve never heard the smile it is a,live experience and in that way they,might even be better than seeing,Radiohead because its more urgent to,see these musicians together coming to,life working together I will say it is,definitely better than Atoms for Peace I,saw that show and I left early that felt,like like a midlife crisis for Tom York,I dont need to see flea bopping around,well Tom York Im just bad this bad,thats my official take I like the,albums I like all of Tom York solo,albums but that concert was painful the,smile feels very very different,so if you can see them live see them,live they played a lot of new songs so,maybe theyre releasing a new album,maybe its not too late,maybe I want them to break up so the,Radiohead can release an album Im,conflicted,so thats my brief introduction and Im,going to get into the the review of the,whole concert track by track going,really into depth about what makes it so,great but first im gonna go to,Professor Sky story time now if you,dont like that okay some people dont,like the personal stuff some people are,just coming here to see just the,analysis thats cool you know like to be,honest I kind of hate Youtubers with,like too much lore you know like like,fake characters and all that stuff and,so I dont have a lore but I do tell the,truth about my life and my life has my,family how did I get to the show what,happens why do I hate driving in Toronto,so if you dont care about that uh click,to the I Ill include like a little time,stamp in the description if you want to,get right to the show okay,okay I went to the show with my son and,if you dont know this,uh my son is a minor internet celebrity,if there was a Radiohead Iceberg my son,would be on that iceberg in 2007 we were,waiting for my oldest daughter to be,born okay,and it was right when in rainbows came,out and we listened to it all the time,partly because my two-year-old son liked,the music enough that he asked for it,all the time so my two-year-old son,memorized all the lyrics to the song,weird fishes by Radiohead I uploaded a,video of me playing weird fishes on,guitar and him singing Its called I,dont know 60 000 views its one of the,cutest things in the world you want to,see me with long hair its a its a its,a cool video,so thats how much my son loves,Radiohead you know I mean for Christmas,last year I got my friend Bruce White,velvet geek to make this uh Black Velvet,portrait of Tom York,the more you look at it the more you,like it,so part of what made this show special,was that it should have been the second,time that my son saw Tom York so we,moved from California Santa Barbara,where I got my doctorate to the,Rochester New York area where I work,and its really its really tough,because some shows come to Buffalo and,youd think oh just go to New York but,New York is like six hours away so,Toronto is the closest place,the thing about Toronto is you have to,cross the border which is fine sometimes,its harder than others,but the main thing is you got to deal,with Toronto so Toronto uh Toronto I,believe Grows by one percent every year,they do not have enough infrastructure,especially on the roads to accommodate,for the number of people that live there,every year you go there theres another,gigantic high-rise on the outskirts of,town and youre just like where are they,going to put all these people and then,it appears as though the Toronto Town,board was like I dont care just write,the check,we got blackberries to make people this,boom is never going to end all right so,Toronto is just a mess to get to its,this weird sort of give and take I I,would rather drive to a concert in New,York City and Deal New York City traffic,any day of the week than having to go to,Toronto thats how bad it is,but the good news was we were set to see,right after basically right after moving,to Rochester we were set to see,Radiohead play at Downsview Park in,Toronto very very cool so we go there,traffic wasnt too bad it was at a park,and then traffic got bad and then,traffic got real bad and then we were in,line for like we were in traffic for two,hours getting up to the parking lot,and we get up to the parking lot and,seriously Wally World sorry folks Parks,closed the guy says the concerts been,canceled turn around we had been in,traffic for two hours for a concert that,had been canceled four hours ago but we,didnt have the internet we didnt have,smartphones I dont know how we didnt,know,so it turns out somebody died okay a,young man died on the set crew you know,on the crew and Radiohead did what they,had to do they canceled the show so you,can imagine the disappointment you know,my four or five-year-old son who just,loves radio no seven-year-old son just,loves Radiohead his favorite band hes a,minor internet celebrity because of,Radiohead and he didnt get to see the,show,2018 they play in Toronto but my sons,at Scout camp,so

A Poetic Inquiry into The Smile: “A Light for Attracting Attention” Review

thank you for auditing the always,positive new music review show hosted by,french professor who will be reviewing,the smile,and their album a light for attracting,attention,now this is,a solo project,from from radiohead what do you call it,when,multiple members from a band,do something else its not a solo,project its basically a trio project,the lead singer the guitarist and the,producer,tom york johnny greenwood nigel godrich,respectively all formed a band with the,drummer from sons of kemet to create the,smile,watch my video on their first single,youll never work on in television again,click on the banana to watch that video,i sort of explained the basic idea that,i think radiohead is too unwieldy its,theres too much pressure and,expectation so i think they just wanted,a chance to make some fun music to just,make music without those expectations,and as i was getting ready to review,this you know ive had a few people,comment like sky why did you only review,their first two singles and theyve,released three more singles since then,and i might have made a mistake,because when i listened to this album,when i listened to it for the first,couple times the songs id already,reviewed i liked a lot more than the,rest,you know but whats the reason for that,is it just the added exposure is it my,familiarity probably or is there a,chance that this is simply a collection,of singles like its not like a real,album i mean especially when were used,to radiohead and their,huge overarching thoughts and plans and,and,themes and all that,maybe this doesnt cut the mustard maybe,its not really an album,maybe its a collection of singles,or maybe both,maybe i didnt make a mistake you see,i tried to compensate for this so i,listened to the album three times all,the way through,and then i realized,i needed to listen to the songs i hadnt,heard yet,so i listened to all of those songs on,repeat,and all of a sudden once id done that i,understood it and then i listened to it,all over again and i came to really love,this album,now sometimes i get people who ask me,you know are you afraid to not like,things you know do you ever feel,pressured to like things,and its not really that its that,i have a lot of good,so its a thing ive developed over time,where if an artist i really like,releases something,and i dont like it,they they can go to the bank and take as,much goodwill as they need to,because im going to sit with it and im,really going to listen to it and maybe,its king of limbs,okay,maybe its an album which ive never,really liked that much i mean its got,its high points but no matter how much,goodwill i poured into king of limbs it,never quite returned itself as a,satisfying radiohead album at least not,to my ears,but still,i,i might i might revisit that position,because with artists like radiohead,they have earned so much goodwill from,me so that thats why i keep listening,thats why i sometimes it may seem like,i listen to the point where i feel like,i have to like it its not that its,just its like the difference between,listening to the singles and listening,to the whole album familiarity,especially with work as nuanced as well,produced as deep as this,it deserves it,but this episode is going to go,careening off into a whole other,direction,look in the description if you only want,to hear me talk about this album the,music because im about to talk about,poetry,you see,it turns out,this band is called the smile,after a poem,or a poem,that is found in this compilation crow,by ted hughes,and i want to talk about it,a lot,i think its important,now before i get started,i am i know a lot about french poetry i,dont know much about english poetry i,dont know anything about ted hughes,straight talk id never heard of him,turns out he was married to sylvia plath,ive heard of her,and i so i contacted one of my,colleagues um,a guy who who i work with just to be,clear i dont represent,i dont represent my college neither,does my colleague,and i i asked him because he was in the,english department you know what do we,know,about ted hughes like whats the general,academic take on ted hughes,and it turns out there isnt one hes,done we dont talk about ted hughes,anymore ted hughes is effectively dead,in academia for multiple reasons one he,is another in a long line of straight,white cis men,who have gotten enough attention and,enough ink written about them theres a,lot of other more marginalized people,who are making poems and who are making,art who have been forgotten in the past,and are receiving that attention now and,the other thing is,um,he probably was not a good husband to,sylvia plath,according to some of her writings to,people or private,journals and letters he was abusive it,appears as though thats most likely i,mean im not here to pass judgment on,two dead people and what their,relationship was like im not im not,interested in passing judgment on him,but i will say that that is the general,consensus so we have sort of an,interesting poet because,hes you know very british very good but,very sort of forgotten so its,interesting that radiohead would choose,one of his poems,so what i wanted to do was i ordered,this book off of amazon and i sincerely,suggest you do it this is a great,great compilation of poems its rich,its its not too challenging but its,very challenging if that makes sense it,actually feels like this album it feels,like the smile album it feels like a,radiohead album that level of like its,still basically poppy but also its very,deep and how much you give to it how,much it gives back and so i i read the,poem that that this is referring to you,know the smile,theres my version of it all marked up,ill get to it later,but then i realized the same issue that,i had with listening to the singles is,the same issue that i had with just,reading this one poem,you see an album in a lot of ways,is like a collection of poetry,a good collection of poetry like this,which is all unified around a couple,different themes,and to just take one poem and take it,out is like taking the smoke out of this,album and just analyzing it on its own,so im going to be studying,im going to be studying a light for,attracting attention and treating it,like its a compilation of poems,all kind of put together musically poems,lyrically poems,and so to do that i want to maybe just,explore like like whats the correlation,between ted hughes and the smile now,listen,i wish,that all because ive spent a long time,going through this you know i marked up,all sorts of notes i spent a long time,reading this,which i love its like my favorite thing,to do reading a book with a pencil is,like my favorite,top five favorite activities,um,but what i realized was that,sort of like spiritually,like poetically ted hughes and tom york,are in a very similar place so i wish i,could tell you that theres a magic,bullet that you could go through here,and you could find song to song things,and that you know tom is crow and crow,is tom i dont think so i dont think,its that kind of silly but i do think,there is a,poetic perspective a perspective on the,world which as i describe it as ted,hughes describes it if you are like me,and you know,tom york pretty well and you know this,album pretty well youll sort of see how,it all goes together,so i want to thank my colleague steven,thank you who pointed me to the ted,hughes society that explains this work,as a quote ideological challenge to both,christianity christianity and humanism,he sees it as an epic folk tale i think,we could see a lot of tom yorks writing,in that,way its all about,how god creates a universe and then,god has a companion,and gods companion,is crow but crow is kind of like a,trickster hes like really a crow but,also hes kind of cynical and hes this,sort of again that kind of folk feeling,a lot of creation myths actually have,crows in them across different,indigenous populations in the world,of course christianity is a creation,myth lets not kid ourselves,but its its in that

The Smile – A Light for Attracting Attention FIRST REACTION (Part 1)

all right you guys are definitely loud,you definitely want me to react to my,little pony right,no,oh,huh well i guess we can do this other,album i heard of this coming out,something by,the frowns i think its by like the muse,members or something,[Music],so,[Music],we dont need,[Music],[Music],[Music],what,[Music],[Music],so when i listen to a song for the first,time usually,i listen to the song,i digest,what i heard i analyzed what i heard and,i have a pretty good understanding of,the emotion that i felt,after listening to said song,when i listen to these songs,the number one emotion,that i feel,a lot of the time like songs like this,at least the ones that are a little bit,more abstract,does it kind of just feel like a big,question mark,like what what am i supposed to feel,listening to this is this supposed to be,like abstract is it supposed to be like,is this supposed to invoke feelings of,discovery or is it feelings of like,anxiety or is it feelings of hope or is,it a combination of a certain few,[Music],it is,[Music],going down,[Music],[Music],so,[Music],maybe its not the best comparison,because i didnt like it,but this kind of reminds me of like when,i was watching 2001 a space odyssey for,the first time and i got to like the,final section of the movie its leaned,more into the,like its the scentsy like ambient,aspects,and to me it kind of does feel almost,like some sort of discovery i touched on,that a little bit earlier i mean you can,definitely tell that the radiohead,members are part of this this so,undeniably radiohead,my one complaint is that it kind of,reminds me of videotape in the way that,the drums are,kind of playing,a,totally separate,rhythm to the actual song its just like,off because everything else sounds,pretty cool,um inventive new fresh,kind of like a forward-thinking version,of radiohead in some ways it sounds so,new it sounds almost futuristic,[Music],i love the chords here,[Music],wow,[Music],really outside of that one comment,like,that song was one of the most impressive,songs that i have heard from radiohead,kind of sounded like an evolved and i,mean this seriously an improved version,of everything in its right place and i,dont say that lightly because i,actually do love that so i remember the,first time i heard that song the like,glitched weird vocals kind of threw me,off but now ive grown to love them,maybe the same thing will happen with,the drums here,but that,song im gonna be honest i like that,more than,a decent amount of the radiohead stuff,like so,nice,[Music],okay in rainbows,[Music],this definitely gives me and rainbows,lives,[Music],this is dense,[Music],what is that tone,[Music],its like detuning,[Music],for some reason this project,i dont know if its because of the new,name,i believe it only has tom york and,johnny greenwood i think from the,original radiohead cast i dont know,what it is exactly,something about this feels like its,given them new creative agency i know,this definitely does not feel like a,side project it feels like a full,project,[Music],nice guitar work,[Music],nice,[Music],i think we just got a little peek into,toms demons,yeah the grooviness,[Music],[Music],nice,[Music],i guess im choosing that as a follow-up,song to the first is to try to say that,this album is going to be a vastly,diverse project because those two songs,were nothing alike and,i dont know it gets me more excited to,see whats coming next you know see,whats gonna happen now,[Music],this is what i mean,oh i love the 54 too,dude,[Music],this is all over the place,[Music],ive been wanting a little more energy,from radiohead too,the last one is a moon shaped pool,[Music],hes,see this is what i mean like them having,the side project seems like a chance to,let out all of those creative demons i,love the energies bring to the table,here we dont see this that often uh,from the more recent radiohead projects,at least from my memory,not so much,its just like a chance to just be,unhinged i love it,love it its we have three totally,different genres in these first three,songs and again,ive said this before im not really an,album listener im here for as many,amazing songs as we can get,so,keep it up,[Music],the energy man,[Music],oh this would pop off live,i can already see the head bob,[Music],[Applause],[Music],i love the cadence of this,[Music],somebody get him some help,drums are going crazy bases nuts,no its over crap,okay whatever started playing there was,sick,im sorry by the way theres background,noise theres a lot of people in my,house so nothing i can do about that,were gonna survive through this,together okay,and use the smile,i love this piano again a fourth,different genre,what are you gonna jazz next,suddenly were floating through space,sadly,[Music],it is jazz,kind of,its its own thing,okay this might be my favorite one,bruh i gotta listen to all these again,i dont know i dont even know what i,want to think,[Music],oh my god,this should be on radiohead album,[Music],oh,[Music],im transcending right now,[Music],i do not hear strings,you cant do that thats just too much,[Music],or that baseline too,all the modulation,[Music],i cant tell for sure but it also sounds,like theyre using an upright bass,if they are,i just love that theyre able to invest,everything into this and just make it,such a creative experience,[Music],the delivery,[Music],ive i dont know if ive ever had an,experience like this listening to a song,[Music],please,again,[Music],you know,forget everything you know,[Music],i dont,oh my god they always know,when to give us more and when to pull,back,[Music],nice,wow,that was an experience,im starting to wonder if their goal is,to use literally an entirely different,style and genre for every song because,thats what its pretty much been so far,and i dont think weve had one that,ive been disappointed by in any way,each one of these songs is,amazing,[Music],i didnt expect to like these as much as,i am is what im saying,and that is a thick groove,[Music],okay,were getting into that like jazziest,feel again,[Music],what a nice groove,[Music],oh they got to do this in the live room,i can already hear it,live lounge i mean sorry,[Music],came in out of nowhere,[Music],that reverb is really tasteful,i love how the reverbs like leaning,over to this side,[Music],nice,[Music],nice i love the way this is mixed,like this is mixed to sound live which i,absolutely love because the instruments,theyre using are such um organic and,classic instruments i heard like a,saxophone in there im pretty sure i,heard horns and the tasteful reverb and,the way everything is mixed,spreading it out again it sounds like,the live lounge and this sounds like a,song designed for the live lounge,basically,i love that sound its um,makes me feel like youre actually there,you know rather than youre being,shipped a product its more like youre,shipping to the product,[Music],give me national anthem vibes,[Music],clarinet i never knew i needed that,[Music],theyre really getting everything they,can under this space,[Music],ourselves,[Music],[Music],something about that song i dont this,could be just because ive been watching,a lot of it lately but better call,sauls final season is coming out here,and something about this song it sounds,like the soundtrack to something thats,a very high quality artful show or movie,because it does such a good job of,creating some sort of atmosphere,um and really relying on that really,solid base groove and then getting as,much as you can out of it which is good,for sitting behind something else with a,visual aid,because,its not too busy to fully take your,attention away from what youre looking,at but its also extremely engaging um,that one could be it might dude its,really hard trying to rank the ones ive,listened to so far i would probably say,surprisingly that the second track the,opposite might be my least favorite one,and that one i still thoroughly enjoyed,thats actually shocking to me you guys,were spamming me that i had