The Smile, who kicked off their European tour two days ago in Croatia, have debuted a new tune titled “Friend of a Friend”. You can view footage of the new song being performed down below, and for any EU and UK fans, tickets for the band’s tour can be found here.
The live performance above sees the trio revealing a somewhat ballad-esque new tune that they allegedly wrote that very same day. The tune sees Yorke inhabiting the higher parts of his vocal range as Greenwood lays down mellow, sombre piano chords tied together by Skinner’s expressive yet robotically tight jazz-styled drumming.
The Smile has a busy summer ahead as far as their touring schedule goes, with the band performing all over Europe for the next two months, stopping in Sweden, Norway, France, Belgium and Germany, just to name a few places. The group will also be playing the second weekend of Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Their full touring schedule can be viewed on the flyer below, and you can view more information regarding Primavera Sound here.
Formed in 2021 by Radiohead members Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood alongside Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, the trio has (expectedly) made waves in recent months after releasing a slew of singles ahead of their debut full-length album A Light for Attracting Attention, which was released just a few days ago on May 13th. The band’s debut live appearance occurred last summer at Glastonbury’s “Live At Worthy Farm” livestream, at which point all of the group’s material was unreleased, previously unheard and somewhat shrouded in mystery.
The new record has been received well by both fans and critics, with Pitchfork introducing their review by calling it “unmistakably the best album yet by a Radiohead side project”, which is quite the compliment given the volume of music that the members of Radiohead have been putting out over the years. Given the band’s personnel, they have not quite been able to escape the inevitable suggestions that A Light for Attracting Attention could be considered a new Radiohead album in a different garb, however it’s very clear that this is no bad thing at all.
Put simply, the album is a display of unfettered creativity from the minds of Yorke, Greenwood and Skinner, allowing them to step away from the pressure of making “the next great thing” in rock music and focusing on just creating music. You can check out A Light for Attracting Attention on all streaming services, and you can listen to the lead single “You Will Never Work in Television Again” below.
