The most gigantic lying Smile of all time

May 23, 2021 5:58 PM

After weeks of cryptic TikTok teasing reminiscent of Kid A-era blips, Radiohead fans were pleasantly surprised this weekend when two of the band's leading members, frontman Thom Yorke and lead guitarist Johnny Greenwood, joined Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner to perform at this year's (virtual) Glastonbury festival as a new band called The Smile (or as Thom put it, "the smile of the guy who lies to you every day"). Their eight-song set, clocking in at over half an hour, is an aggressive melange of funk, post-punk, and math rock, their most guitar-driven material since 2007's In Rainbows, all kicking off with a beautiful version of unreleased Radiohead gem "Skirting on the Surface" [background]. Best of all? Since the livestream DRM shat the bed, the event's organizers released the whole show free online: Part One video - Part Two - Part Three - individual track downloads. Full tracklist, lyrics, and other goodies inside.

High-quality .M4A downloads (eight tracks, 71 MB)

Mastered, lossless .WAV files (eight tracks, 642 MB!)

Barebones official site thesmiletheband.com (with a privacy policy you might actually want to read for once)

The official set list (click a song title, wait to load, then double-click the highlighted tile to play):

[Part One (video)]

1. Skating on the Surface (@1:22 in the video link) [lyrics]

When we realise we're only held in suspension
Till someone comes along and shakes us

2. The Smoke (@6:50) [lyrics]

We set ourselves on fire
Smoke wakes me from my sleep

3. You Will Never Work in Television Again (@11:05) [lyrics]

Couldn't prolly afford a kiss
From a nursery rhyme

[Part Two (video)]

4. Opposites (@ 0:24) [lyrics]

Can we have the next contestant please?
Objects can, objects can appear too close
Lit up like a, lit up like a firework
‘Cause opposites attract
Opposites don’t work it out

5. Panavision (@3:38) [lyrics]

As it opens wide
With no filter on the lens
We see everything you do

6. Just Eyes and Mouth (@8:05) [lyrics]

Soon to complete your transformation
And beginning all this all over again

7. We Don't Know What Tomorrow Brings (@11:41) [lyrics]

It's a terrible shame
It's a terrible shame, I know

[Part Three (video)]

8. Thin Thing (@0:10) [lyrics]

The beginning at the end
‘Til we all turn back again

/r/Radiohead has a main discussion post, along with some time signature analysis and a copy of the Ted Hughes poem that inspired the side project's name.

Hungry for more? Some believe the Tiktok videos mentioned above the fold point to a (belated) 20th-anniversary re-issue of the band's landmark 2000 album Kid A, which is rumored to have even more unreleased material than the OK Computer sessions (which was enough for a deluxe boxed set and 16+ hours of leaked material).

Radiohead Previously on MeFi:

OK Computer retrospective
Kid A retrospective
A Moon Shaped Pool
The massive OK Computer sessions minidiscs leak

posted by Rhaomi (10 comments total)

Thank you. Really looking forward to listening to this!
posted by bolix at 6:35 PM on May 23, 2021

Thanks - I've watched 3 songs so far and I'm finding it exhilarating. Also: Thom Yorke is very handy on the bass!
posted by misterbee at 6:47 PM on May 23, 2021

Just excellent. Thanks Rhaomi!
posted by turbid dahlia at 7:38 PM on May 23, 2021

Sons of Kemet! Radiohead! Woooooooo.
posted by Going To Maine at 7:44 PM on May 23, 2021

Thank you so much!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:55 PM on May 23, 2021

For UK viewers - and those who remember when getting into Glastonbury for free meant getting your dog on a string to help you dig a surreptitious tunnel under the fence - BBC Iplayer has archive footage of Radiohead's set from the swamp that was 1997 Glastonbury.
posted by rongorongo at 1:45 AM on May 24, 2021

I was sort of vaguely into it, and then track 6 (second-last in Part 2) really grabbed me, and then 7 too. Worth sticking with!
posted by horopter at 2:16 AM on May 24, 2021

The WAV downloads seem to have been taken down. Would appreciate a memail from anybody who managed to snag them first.
posted by flabdablet at 5:14 AM on May 24, 2021

flabdablet: "The WAV downloads seem to have been taken down. Would appreciate a memail from anybody who managed to snag them first."

Just found a similar mastered package here, including rough lyrics and some nice album art. Not the same files as in the post, but maybe worth a download?
posted by Rhaomi at 3:06 PM on June 8, 2021

Those appear to have been resampled to 44.1kHz (the originally posted WAVs are 48kHz) though they're still encoded in 32 bit floating point. Odd choice. Thanks, though.
posted by flabdablet at 11:52 AM on June 9, 2021