The Smile - Bending Hectic

An animation by Sabrina Nichols
Imagery by Stanley Donwood

#thesmile

[arnoliou]

Witnessing Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood's excitement for this new project is awesome and the result is magnificent

[CaveWang]

No words for this song. Those dissonant strings into the face melting guitars, holy lord above

[enma_music]

I love how it goes from "I have these slings, I have these arrows" to "Despite these slings, despite these arrows". It really gives the emotional appeal of going from an uncertain and unconfident situation to one where you know you can do it and overcome the situation you are in to turn things around.

[sarahisbomb]

When the strings hit, I lose my mind. When the guitars hit, I just wanna die. So good. So so good. ☠️

[Losfhc]

An instant classic, this is the greatest song I’ve ever heard.

[ikomodo]

Still even a year later I come back to this when I NEED it. This song will go up not down in all of history as one of the greatest ever created. Mark my words

[itsmemaaaar]

This is one of those perfect songs and nothing I could say could express how good it is. Every note, every transition, the lyrics, the meaning, everything is pure poetry and pure music and I'm just in awe about it

[duncanmacphee]

I had the privilege of seeing them play this live last year. It was such a beautiful, off-kilter song… then Jonny hit the distortion pedal. From that moment I was obsessed with this song. The vast majority of musicians create their best stuff early on, but Thom and Jonny somehow keep raising the bar. Can't wait to hear the stuff they put out when they're 80!

[the_silicon_senpai]

The Smile dropping new material, our days have been made.

[divchynad]

The Smile have helped me through the hardest times. LOVE from Ukraine <3

[rufiorules]

You only get one chance to listen to this song for the first time, make it count

[hanqizhu]

I just can’t help crying while listening to this song… When the car flew off, the music turned sharp and violent, yet I didn’t feel fear. Instead, I felt lifted by something immense—its force was brutal, but in it, I found safety.

[TheMoroPL]

This really follows the typical Radiohead new song cycle, doesn't it?

First listen: This is pretty weird, meh

2 to 4 listen: Okay, I can see this song is pretty good

5th listen and onwards: This is absolutely the best music I've listened to recently, how do they keep doing this?

[michaelc]

It's not just the best song from The Smile, but I feel it's among the top 5 songs I have ever heard.

The way it's presented along with the emotional roller coaster it brings out of the listener is shocking. It fills me with peace, then sadness, then terror, and finally a sense of over coming hardship that is something truly remarkable. I feel that I can't listen to it too often because it's exhausting to do so.

I want to thank Thom, Jonny, Tom and anyone involved with creating this song. It's brilliant.

[gpeddino]

Holy shit, this sound amazing. The string swell leading into the second chorus gave me major goosebumps.

[IAmBombSon]

This is right up there with the Beatles A Day in the Life for me... I haven't felt this way about a song in years.

[SenorKraut]

It's early but I am confident to call this my song of the year already.

[TheScottdavis]

The dissonant orchestral section brings to mind Johnny's amazing score on There Will Be Blood.

[miamdwa]

I think it's very cool that they have a consistent visual identity.

I hope they keep it for the whole of the second album.

[fede]

You can't understand how special and incredible this album is 'till you listen to the whole thing at least three times... Than you can get into his real vibe and love it forever as the masterpiece it is...