The opening track to In Rainbows builds from an electronic beat to a full band number with warm guitar tones and propelling bass.

Lyrically, it’s a song about love and betrayal, as well as the repetition of failed pursuits. In interviews, Thom Yorke has described the songs in In Rainbows to be related to “that anonymous fear thing, sitting in traffic, thinking, ‘I’m sure I’m supposed to be doing something else’” and “about the fucking panic of realising you’re going to die! And that any time soon I could possibly have a heart attack when I next go for a run.”

These two themes are heavily present in the album’s opening track– contrasting a lack of progress in one’s ambitions, with death’s ticking clock inevitably being ushered in “one by one… to us all”.

To convey the aforementioned feeling of panic and dread, the song is written in a 5/4 time signature that makes it impossible for the listener to move to the song any slower than the beat itself, like a 4/4 time signature would allow. This forces the listener to embrace the tempo and the feeling of the song.