Wall of Eyes, the second album from Radiohead offshoot the Smile released in January 2024, was knotty, earthy and filled with the sort of jazz-inflected art-rock that seems to come so naturally to these accomplished musicians. In other words, it’s everything you’d expect from Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and former Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner in the interim between their other bands.So it’s little surprise that Cutouts, arriving nine months later and culled from the same sessions as Wall of Eyes, is more of the same. But more than just an album of leftovers, Cutouts exhibits a personality of its own, another take on familiar musical themes, if you will, from the skittering rhythms of Skinner’s percussion to the synths-and-orchestra composite that forms the bedrock of several songs.Like a handful of Wall of Eyes tracks, some of these 10 new songs debuted onstage before and after the Smile released 2022’s A Light for Attracting Attention. That road-tested history translates into air-tight performances on Cutouts without sacrificing the band’s improvisational nature; they still suggest a sharply tuned jazz combo working its way around formative melodies and provisional foundations until they arrive at a point of shared musical nirvana.READ MORE: Reviews of 2024’s Best Rock AlbumsYorke’s twitchy vocals often match the music, providing another framework for the Smile to launch their lyrical explorations. “A gas leak, I’m falling through the ice / A vacant lot to buy,” he sings in “Zero Sum,” outlining the song’s fidgety electronic backing without ever making it explicit what it is he’s going on about. A line name-checking Windows 95 indicates this could even be the Smile’s OK Computer at times, though the music itself is more Kid A/Amnesiac.On the album’s first two songs, “Foreign Spies” and “Instant Psalm,” the Smile cools down (or rather, begins to warm up), blanketing the music in an icy sheen similar to that of Radiohead records at the top of the century. But it’s never so far removed from thawing that it doesn’t make a connection. From there, Cutouts finds its way in familiar positions, with slippery guitar driving “Eyes & Mouth” and “Don’t Get Me Started” creeping over pulsating synths. “A black hole at the center of the galaxy / Being pulled down, nice and easy,” Yorke sings in “The Slip,” summarizing the tug of the Smile’s third album. Just try resisting its gentle pull.Top 15 Rock Albums of 2024 (So Far)Reports of the genre’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci