Type: | live |
Artist: | the Smile |
Cover: | TheSmileMontreux.png |
Border: | yes |
Alt: | A painting of two blue humanoid silhouettes, one standing with their head and shoulders out of the top of the frame, and the other coming out from near the bottom of the frame with their lower body not visible. The album name is in the top-right corner in all caps block text. |
Released: | 14 December 2022 |
Recorded: | 12 July 2022 |
Venue: | Montreux Music & Convention Centre, Montreux, Switzerland |
Length: | 35:03 |
Label: | XL |
Prev Title: | A Light for Attracting Attention |
Prev Year: | 2022 |
Next Title: | Europe: Live Recordings 2022 |
Next Year: | 2023 |
Italic Title: | no |
The Smile (Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, July 2022) is the first live album by the English rock band the Smile, released on 14 December 2022 by XL Recordings.[1] It is a recording of their Montreux Jazz Festival set from 12 July.[2] [3] The Smile announced the album the day before its release, backed by a concert film available to view for 48 hours on YouTube.[4]
Spins Jonathan Rowe said the album demonstrated that the Smile were "no mere studio project" but "an actual, organic live band".[5] In Pitchfork, Zach Schonfeld wrote: "Since the beginning, the Smile have been dogged by an eminently reasonable question: how is this not just two Radioheads stacked in a trench coat? The answer is right there in the title of this release. This band plays jazz, see." Both critics expressed disappointment that the album did not include the new songs the Smile had performed on their tour.