The Smile have posted a series of cryptic social media posts leading fans to believe they’re teasing a new album.
READ MORE: The Smile – ‘Wall of Eyes’ review: a masterclass in pushing rock forward
The supergroup consisting of Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner have been mystifying fans with a number of posts they’ve made on social media.
Redditors have begun cracking some cryptic messages the band have been sending, which they’ve theorised leads to some titles on the tracklist of a potential upcoming project.
One Instagram post, for instance, spells out the words ‘Three Zero Sum’ when using a Polybius cipher (which uses a 5×5 grid to create unique two digit numbers corresponding with a letter of the alphabet).
Meanwhile, another TikTok uses a Solfa cipher (where a musical note and its length is assigned to the alphabet) to spell out ‘Seven Tiptoe’, suggesting ‘Tiptoe’ might be the record’s seventh track.
And, if a recent tweet decoded with a Caesar cipher is to be believed, their recently released single ‘Don’t Get Me Started’ will be sixth in the tracklist. Check out more evidence below:
Complete guide to the cryptography of LP3 (will be updated)
byu/ManInCloak inTheSmile
BOJUTZMKZSKYZGXZKJ
— The Smile (@thesmiletheband) August 23, 2024
Last month, the group cancelled their upcoming European tour dates for August while Greenwood recovered from his stay in intensive care.
“A few days ago, Jonny became seriously ill from an infection that needed emergency hospital treatment, some of it in intensive care. Mercifully, he is now out of danger and will soon return home,” the band wrote.
“We have been instructed by the medical team in charge of Jonny’s care to cancel all engagements until he has had time to make a full recovery. To that end, The Smile tour of Europe in August is cancelled.”
Their last release was ‘Wall of Eyes’ in January this year, which NME said “features some of their best work since ‘In Rainbows’” in a four-star review.
“Where previously the comparisons to their Radiohead catalogue could warp expectations, the breadth of the material on offer here suggest that it could, eventually, flip that dynamic right on its head.”
The post The Smile appear to be teasing a new album appeared first on NME.
