{"id":243,"date":"2022-12-26T16:37:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T21:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/?p=243"},"modified":"2022-12-26T19:19:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T00:19:36","slug":"you-will-never-work-in-television-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richbradley.org\/songs\/2022-favorites\/you-will-never-work-in-television-again\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou Will Never Work in Television Again\u201d \u2013 The Smile"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I\u2019ve written before about how impossible it is to have any objectivity about the band that got you through high school. That band for me was Radiohead \u2013 OK Computer<\/em> came out the year I turned 13, which more or less sealed things \u2013 and blessedly, they have continued to hold an active and meaningful presence throughout my adult life. <\/span><\/p>\n

That presence has evolved, of course. In my teenage years it bordered on obsession, with too much of my free time spent chasing bootleg fragments of new songs over 56k dial-up speeds. In my twenties, Radiohead\u2019s (and Thom Yorke\u2019s solo) tours stood at the top of my concert pyramid, setting the example against which I judged all other shows, and requiring me to spend whatever was necessary when they\u2019d pass through town.<\/span><\/p>\n

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As I approach the end of my thirties, Radiohead may be winding down too. They\u2019ve released just one album in the last 10 years, 2016\u2019s elegant A Moon Shaped Pool,<\/em> and they\u2019ve shown no urgency to regroup since. But they have continued to be musically active individually, particularly Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, who is at the height of his demand as a film composer. And I can\u2019t say it doesn\u2019t still hold magic for me when I hear Greenwood\u2019s orchestrations in Phantom Thread<\/em> or The Power of the Dog<\/em> \u2013 part of me can\u2019t help but feel validated that my childhood obsession\u2019s contemporary work is being venerated as Great Art a quarter-century later.<\/span><\/p>\n

But who knows where Radiohead might be today without COVID-19? For a financially comfortable group with geographically scattered families, the pandemic could have quashed any conversations about revving the band back up. In one of 2020\u2019s countless surreal cultural moments, Yorke debuted a new song called \u201cPlasticine Figures<\/a>\u201d on Jimmy Fallon the only way he could \u2013 alone, from home, his Zoom camera stubbornly fixed on his unkempt and dimly-lit visage. Maybe in some other reality, \u201cFigures\u201d would have been in the process of getting a full-band arrangement for a future LP and world tour. As it stands, this performance remains a one-off, a haunting curiosity from an unthinkably dark timeline where something so bleak would air on The Tonight Show.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, that\u2019s not where the story ends. While Radiohead remains dormant, we improbably now have The Smile: Thom and Jonny, on both record and stage, accompanied by drummer Tom Skinner. The Smile\u2019s 2022 debut album, A Light for Attracting Attention,<\/em> is like Radiohead with slightly lower stakes and an increased penchant for unusual time signatures. If Radiohead was too heavy and complex an engine to restart mid-lockdown, Yorke and Greenwood figured a new, more agile vehicle for collaboration would suffice.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Light for Attracting Attention<\/em> is very good, but again, it\u2019s difficult for me to have perspective. Jonny\u2019s scores and the other band members\u2019 various solo records feel separate enough from Radiohead that I can more or less judge them on their merits. But watching Jonny shred stage left while Thom flails and yelps \u2013 this sure feels an awful lot like the main act, all apologies to Colin, Ed, and Phil.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Smile\u2019s best song to date is \u201cBending Hectic<\/a>,\u201d which was composed on tour and quickly became a live highlight. It\u2019s an incredible blend of Jonny\u2019s avant-garde, cinematic guitar composition technique, the restrained playfulness with tempo that Thom has shown in recent work like \u201cDawn Chorus<\/a>,\u201d and an almost shockingly direct power chord-driven chorus that sounds like it could date from The Bends.<\/em> It\u2019s likely to appear on a second The Smile LP, though I can\u2019t help but wish this one could get the full Radiohead treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u201cBending Hectic\u201d is a song for a future year, and right now I want to focus on 2022. That brings us to The Smile\u2019s second-best song to date, \u201cYou Will Never Work in Television Again<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before \u201cTelevision\u201d we\u2019d heard little from Thom since his terrifying Fallon broadcast from the edge of the apocalypse (and the less said about \u201cCreep [Very 2021 Rmx]<\/a>,\u201d the better). So The Smile\u2019s lead single was not only surprising, but an enormous relief \u2013 a cathartic burst of post-punk energy in 5\/4 time, with Yorke ripping into unnamed targets in full \u201cBodysnatchers\u201d mode. <\/span><\/p>\n

While most obviously referencing Silvio Berlusconi, the rage behind \u201cTelevision\u201d could apply equally to any of the grotesque elites who have sat atop global politics and entertainment, from Weinstein to Trump. \u201cTake your dirty hands off my love, heaven knows where else you\u2019ve been,\u201d Yorke sneers as the track careens to a halt in a tidy 2:48. Yorke\u2019s lyrics have always been best when they\u2019re as funny as they are scathing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Radiohead doesn\u2019t look like I ever imagined it would heading into 2023. Neither does my life, or most people\u2019s lives, or the world. But we’re lucky to live at the same time as these artists, and I’m grateful that since \u201cPlasticine Figures” Thom Yorke has indeed worked in television again.<\/span><\/p>\n