Originally released as a B-side on the ‘Karma Police’ single back in 1997, ‘Lull’ was remastered and re-released alongside the other OK Computer era tracks on the album’s 20th anniversary edition in 2017. That was the first time I’d ever heard the song and, for a while, it was a favourite that I would repeatedly listen to. With its short length and simple structure – only consisting of two verses and two choruses before finishing – you can probably tell why it was left off the album, but it certainly makes it stand out from many other Radiohead tracks.

Immediately, the song starts off with a shimmering arpeggiated guitar chord created and played by guitarist Ed O’Brien. This riff is practically what the whole song is based on, and as those opening seconds continue a sudden xylophone comes in the mix on the right before a harmonising Thom Yorke joins in. The track describes a narrator who seems to freak out or overreact at the smallest of things compared to another who ‘wakes and smiles’ and ‘stops the crowd’, I’m guessing with a sense of calmness and ease. The narrator seems to put his irritable state down to the stress and tension and his ability to get distracted by things that shouldn’t really matter in the chorus, and states that he’s in a lull to separate himself from everything. The rhythm section comes in after the first chorus, and the track’s then given this nice groove to really set things off. There are parts where Yorke sings in his lower register, which is always a warm welcome in any Radiohead song.

I think I read somewhere that the band had given thought to making an album full of shorter 2/3 minute songs; if that were to have happened, ‘Lull’ was a sign of what would be expected. I don’t know whether that’s true. It’s certainly an interesting idea. It’s a song that no one knows a lot about. The band have never performed it live. But I reckon it’s a bit of a hidden gem in their discography.