The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022) is the first live album by the English rock band the Smile, released on 14 December 2022 by XL Recordings. It comprises performances of songs from their first album, A Light for Attracting Attention (2022), recorded at Montreux Jazz Festival on 12 July. The Smile announced the album the day before its release, backed by a concert film available for 48 hours on YouTube.
Contents
Reception
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022) received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 from 4 critic scores. Spin's Jonathan Rowe said it demonstrated that the Smile were "no mere studio project" but "an actual, organic live band". In Pitchfork, Zach Schonfeld wrote: "Since the beginning, the Smile have been dogged by an eminently reasonable question: how is this not just two Radioheads stacked in a trench coat? The answer is right there in the title of this release. This band plays jazz, see." Both critics expressed disappointment that the album did not include the new songs the Smile had performed on tour.
Track listing
All track titles have "Live at Montreux Jazz Festival" in parentheses at the end.
Personnel
Thom Yorke – vocals, guitar, bass
Jonny Greenwood – guitar, bass
Tom Skinner – drums
Mikko Gordon – engineering