When the Covid pandemic halted all live music, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead wanted to keep working and created a new project called, The Smile. They enlisted Tom Skinner of Sons of Kemet to play drums and the result is… well, very similar to Radiohead but there are some differences.  For example, many tracks on this beautiful album include the strings of the London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of only the best jazz musicians in  London, including Byron Wallen, Theon & Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman and Jason Yarde. 

Produced by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Goodrich, it’s a mixture of rock, post-punk, nu-jazz, and electronic. ‘A Light for Attracting Attention’ was released in May 2022 and it’s one of my favorites this year. Top tracks include The Opposite, Pana-vision, The Smoke, Free in the Knowledge, and Skrting in the Surface.