“Go to Sleep.” was the second single to be released from the album Hail to the Thief, Radiohead’s sixth album released in 2003. The record marked a return to the guitar oriented music the band were known for, after taking a few years down the electronic/experimental route with “Kid A” and “Amnesiac“. Though it gets a bit of flack for not being as cohesive as other Radiohead albums, and because its almost-hour-length is a bit too much for some to handle. Thom Yorke had the same feeling; he posted an alternate tracklist showing what the album may have been had the band taken more time on it. Good to see that today’s track made it on there.

The song has many twists and turns to it. It starts off with an acoustic guitar driven riff playing at a 10/4 time signature that after being accompanied by Thom Yorke’s wailing vocals for a while is joined by Phil Selway’s drums and delicate electric guitar touches via Jonny Greenwood. The track then takes another turn when tom-tom drums dominate the mix as Yorke starts singing about the possibilities of the loonies and the monster taking over and Greenwood’s guitar becomes more distorted and frantic, eventually producing random noises and glitched out sounds as the song fades out.

It’s one of the songs from the album that I’ve known for the longest; I watched the video on the television way before I ever bought the album. It will always be a favourite track of mine from it.