The Smile – “Friend Of A Friend”

The Smile – “Friend Of A Friend”

The Smile’s new album Wall Of Eyes is approaching rapidly — perhaps you read our Premature Evaluation review? Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Tom Skinner have doled out a third advance single today to go along with “Bending Hectic” and the title track. They’ve also announced dates and details for a series of album playback and film screening events ahead of the album’s release.

If you’ve heard live versions of “Friend Of A Friend,” you know it’s a bit of a curveball where the Smile is concerned. It’s not like off-kilter ’70s-style piano-pop is completely out of step with Yorke’s back catalog; this tune would fit in well on Radiohead’s Amnesiac alongside “Life In A Glasshouse” and “You And Whose Army” and “Pyramid Song,” gracefully wobbling its way forward into a screeching string section like a warped Randy Newman song or a distant cousin to “A Day In The Life.” It’s one of my favorites on the new LP, so make sure to listen to it below.

Ahead of the Wall Of Eyes release, the Smile are hosting screenings in cities around the world, celebrating “the new album and the band’s collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson.” Those events will feature the following:

• Wall Of Eyes album playback in its entirety, for the first and only time with surround sound and accompanying never-before-seen footage of the album’s recording sessions.
• The world film premiere of “Friend Of A Friend” and a presentation of “Wall Of Eyes,” both directed
by Paul Thomas Anderson and shot on 35mm film*
• A program looking back over Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous directorial collaborations with both Thom Yorke and Radiohead to include ANIMA (short film) and Radiohead’s “Daydreaming” (35mm), “Present Tense” & “The Numbers.”

SCREENING DATES:
01/18 – London, UK @ The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square*
01/18 – New York, US @ The Village East, Manhattan*
01/19 – Los Angeles, US @ Brain Dead Studios*
01/20 – Seoul, SK @ SangSang Madang Cinema (x2 showings)
01/20 – Milan, IT @ Cinema Godard – Fondazione Prada*
01/20 – CDMX, MX @ Cine Tonalá
01/22 – Tokyo, JP @ 190 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku*
01/22 – Paris, FR @ MK2 Quai de Loire*
01/23 – Sydney, AUS @ Golden Age Cinema (x2 showings)
01/23 – Amsterdam, NL @ Eye Filmuseum*
01/23 – Glasgow, UK @ Glasgow Film Theatre*
01/25 – Tokyo, JP @ 190 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku*
01/25 – Berlin, DE @ Kino Intimes

Wall Of Eyes is out 1/26 on XL.

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