We’re on our way, slowly but surely, to the end of 2025.
Instead of starting to think about this year’s best LPs,
let’s go back to 2024 and listen to TUTV’s 20 Best Albums
again, and look back on what I wrote about each one
of them.
Today: No. 16
Band: THE SMILE
Sort of supergroup featuring 2 radioheads, Thom
Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Album: CUTOUTS.
Their 3rd LP in just 2 years
(Radiohead 8 in 31 years).
Pitchfork said: “The Radiohead spinoff’s looser, funkier second album in nine months is a thrilling testament to the near-telepathic chemistry the three musicians have spent the last three years developing. It offers a grim prophecy that could refer to any number of world-historical crises. We’re all going to be dirt in the ground soon enough. Might as well hurry
up and make another record.”
TUTV: By far their best to my ears. On the previous 2, they tried too hard
to not sound like Radiohead (which they did frequently anyway) and did it with
too many redundant orchestrations, too many unnecessary layers and a bit of
arty farty structures here and there.
Mind you these are good LPs but on this one they keep it far more simple resulting
in 10 very compelling pieces of mesmerizing music. Trippy fast ones alternate with slow
reflective doom and gloom ones and throughout the arrangements are subtle, direct and most entertaining with Thom Yorke sounding, yes, at ease, not forcing his compassionate voice/vocals. Bingo.
SINGLE
ALBUM