What surprises after listening Wall of Eyes for the first time, it is this impression of calm, even detachment, that these eight new compositions provide. There where A Light for Attracting Attention (2022) sought to mark a distance from the Radiohead sound by incorporating afrobeat rhythmic motifs, this second album from the trio (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, drummer Tom Skinner) swirls around psychedelic folk, jazz and kosmische rock, elevating occasionally the tone, as is the case on the finale of Bending Hectic and with the dense Read the Room, over which Greenwood’s raw guitars reign. We will also be surprised to discover an almost “Beatlesque” piano-voice-violins-drums ballad entitled Friend of a Friend, on which Yorke, incorrigibly pessimistic in his texts, evokes the memory of our confinement habits. Above all, there is Wall of Eyes jewels of songs (sweet Teleharmonic !) which are among the best that Yorke and Greenwood have composed outside of Radiohead. A rich and enveloping album.
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