Every Monday, 88Nine music director Erin Wolf shares a sonic gem she found using her nearly 20 years of new-music exploration experience. You can hear all her discoveries at 2 p.m. every Sunday on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
Rooted-in-Radiohead English rock trio The Smile recently shared their newest single for XL: a propulsive track called “Zero Sum” that they’ve often shared during their live sets for the last little bit.
Guitars skitter on this toe-tapper as Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner weave more progressive influences into their rock ‘n’ roll. The group seems to be gaining momentum both musically and physically, putting out additional material following the January 2024 release of Wall Of Eyes.
The productive recording sessions from their sophomore LP resulted in an overflow of songs that will help populate The Smile’s third album, Cutouts. Folks are already calling it the Amnesiac to Wall of Eyes’ Kid A, and you’ll be able to hear it in full Oct 4.
Until then, find The Smile’s “Zero Sum” and the rest of the songs featured in this episode by using the player at the top of the page. Then set a reminder to dial in to 88Nine at 2 p.m. every Sunday for an always all-new playlist on What’s All This: Adventures in New Music.
Episode playlist
- The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Pop Seeds”
- Lykke Li, “Midnight Shining”
- Future Islands, “Glimpse”
- Ivy, “All I Ever Wanted”
- The Clientele, “Trains In the Night”
- Mount Eerie, “Broom of Wind”
- Charlotte Cornfield, “Audience of One”
- MJ Lenderman, “Wristwatch”
- Tomo Katsurada, “Zen Bungalow”
- Salad, “Cordyceps”
- The Smile, “Zero Sum”
- Sleater-Kinney, “Here Today”
- TV On the Radio, “Final Fantasy – 2004 Recording”
