new one … work in progress … there are a few .. https://t.co/jPeNYiNVEz

— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) July 10, 2022

The band played the Spanish music festival in Barcelona exactly a month before this tweet on June 10th, with Julian Casablancas from The Strokes taking to his social media to rave about their performance. Calling it the “best show i’ve seen in YEARS“, Casablancas posted a short video of The Smile, comprised of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet’s Tom Skinner, on his Instagram saying “had my mind blown, best show i’ve seen in YEARS ……The Smile – shiiiiiiit that was good. like phillip glass with miles chords with in rainbows Radiohead or something… idk. insane festival overall honestly …Tyler / Tame Impala etc so many other champions too … thank you thank you & thank you to all of it and all who came to the show“.

The Smile only just just released their debut album A Light For Attracting Attention back in May of this year on XL Recordings, so it’s somewhat surprising but exciting that they already have new music in the pipeline. Their debut peaked at No.5 on the UK Albums Chart and gained significant critical attention, with Pitchfork giving it a solid 8.6, and SPIN calling it their album of 2022, it certainly wasn’t a misstep from the kings of alternative rock.

The snippet of “Colours Fly” revealed from their performance at Primavera seems to put the song in a psychedelic desert rock kind of world, with Thom Yorke riffing over a bass guitar whilst singing “If you change your mind, I won’t be surprised, Let the colours fly“, it’s reminiscent of Angus Stone’s trippier work with side project Dope Lemon and seems to be in the band’s hypnotic sweet spot. The next time they will play live in the UK will be at All Points East Festival in London’s Victoria Park supporting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ on Sunday the 28th of August. Aside from that they have no further UK shows booked, but a tour across Europe locked in for June and July and a tour across America booked in for November and December. Let’s hope for new music soon!