The Smile

Everything Thom Yorke does will be cool and alien, because that's who he is: an intelligent alien who likes to dance. Everything is still cool. But it's gotten shallower since 2007. Well, so have I; I caught up with Radiohead around 2009-2011, when I was just ripe; since then, I've paid peripheral attention as we all age past our prime for finding emotional depth in this music. I feel I'm slowly graduating to jazz, classical, and traditional music. Jonny expanded into film. Thom is Thom, an icon, stalling. They've always been oblique, but they used to fall frequently into lushness; now they fall oftener into skittish funk. So the heart remains, but it's dried up a bit. Meanwhile I'm growing stale to this sort of thing. Maybe ten years ago this album would surgically alter my development, like the old stuff did; but I think the band and I stale simultaneously. I'm finding other avenues for fulfillment, but I wonder how Thom's doing.