"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Sail to the Moon" by Radiohead. Modest rise and fall. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: contemplative, dreamy, melancholy. Visual style: 2000s digital editorial aesthetic. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Balanced energy, right in the middle of 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for dinner.
75
BPM
Sail to the Moon by Radiohead is 75 BPM — Adagio (slow).
Half-time 38 BPM · Double-time 150 BPM · released 2003
Fan image for "Sail to the Moon"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
Does this image fit the song?
0 agree · 0 not quite · 0/100 toward next regeneration
Prompts in the running for the next image
Upvote the prompts you think best capture the song. The top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. Submit your own at the bottom.
No listener prompts yet. Be the first to submit one below.
How would you describe this song?
One or two sentences. Describe what the song feels like — a scene, a metaphor, a color, a place. Good descriptions are specific and sensory. Your submission becomes a candidate prompt that others can upvote.
Share:
Share on X
Explore from this song · jump to the numbers · FAQ
Find its sonic twinHidden gems like itDial itSongs like thisAll tools
Song DNA
Notes: The song features fluid, shifting time signatures and unpredictable phrasing that create disorientation, paired with piano-driven organic textures and subtle modal shifts. Vocals are tender and floating, but rhythmic instability may unsettle sensitive listeners.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: deep listening introspective meltdown recovery
A complex, piano-led lullaby written by Thom Yorke for his newborn son, characterized by constantly changing time signatures, borrowed chords, and an atmospheric mood reminiscent of 'Pyramid Song.'
affiliate links
Hear it the way it was made
The right gear changes everything.
Moods: contemplative, dreamy, melancholy
Traditions: alternative rock, art rock
At a glance
"Sail to the Moon" by Radiohead
75 BPM, dynamic range 5/10, layered texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 5/10 is within the normal pop-mix band. There is variation between verse and chorus, but it's the kind of variation most listeners encounter routinely.
Sudden changes: present. This song uses surprise as a feature. For focus or background listening, it's likely to pull your attention away; for active listening, that's often the point.
Texture is layered — a full arrangement with clear separation between parts.
Predictability is low — this song does not follow standard verse-chorus form closely, and rewards active listening more than passive listening.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Radiohead's catalog
We have 78 songs from Radiohead in the library. Of those, 7 are rated Safe, 55 Moderate, and 16 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 5/10 sits below the artist average of 6.6, making it the #69 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Hail to the Thief
We have 10 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
- 2+2=5 — intense DR 8
- Videotape — moderate DR 6
- There There — moderate DR 7
- Myxomatosis — moderate DR 6
- 2 Plus 2 Equals 5 — intense DR 8
- A Wolf at the Door — intense DR 8
- Where I End and You Begin — moderate DR 7
- Go to Sleep — moderate DR 7
- Scatterbrain — moderate DR 6
2003 context
Released in 2003. We have 365 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.5/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 2000s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
Music for Meltdown Recovery: What to Play When the World Is Too Much
Music for Meltdown Recovery: What to Play When the World Is Too Much — A guide for sensory-sensitive…
Songs that feel like driving alone at night
A field guide to the songs that only make sense after midnight — the steady, spacious, emotionally-h…
Songs Like Flume by Bon Iver
Flume measures intensity 16/100 and is one of the few recordings we tag nostalgic as well as introsp…
How fast is "Sail to the Moon"?
75 BPM — Slow (downtempo / ballad)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Sleep, meditation, reading, focus work.
Browse more songs at 75 BPM.
When "Sail to the Moon" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
~
Focus / studying
Maybe — fine for routine work, but the mid-song changes may pull attention during deep focus.
✗
Running / workout
No — 75 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
✗
Sleep / winding down
No — contains elements that will keep an awake nervous system engaged.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
✓
Emotional release / catharsis
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
Music for Meltdown Recovery: What to Play When the World Is Too Much
Music for Meltdown Recovery: What to Play When the World Is Too Much — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
I Listened to Every Radiohead Album Through a Sensory Lens — Here's What I Found
Radiohead's nine albums analyzed through dynamic range, texture, and emotional intensity — from Pablo Honey's raw stadium rock to A Moon Sha…
The 10 Calmest Albums Ever Recorded — A low-intensity Listening Guide
The 10 Calmest Albums Ever Recorded — A low-intensity Listening Guide — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
Why this rating
We rate this song Moderate because it falls between our Safe and Intense thresholds on at least one dimension. Moderate is the default for most well-produced music that has real arc but no surprise elements. Full rubric: methodology.
This song in the Music Studio
44/100 intensity
See how “Sail to the Moon” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
Listen on
Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-14. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
On our 19k-song scale this lands in the middle band — more energetic than 41% of songs, calmer than the other 59%. Its intensity reading of 44/100 comes from a dynamic range of 5/10, layered texture, moderate shifts, and soft vocals. It shares this stretch of the spectrum with thousands of other tracks, so the finer fingerprint below is what really separates it.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 88% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Cello Song — Nick Drake · 88%Daily Routine — Animal Collective · 88%Strange World — Iron Maiden · 89%Baby Bye Bye — Mac DeMarco · 88%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
Dial the feeling up or down
Same feeling, bigger: Horse Latitudes — The Doors
What it’s good for
Sleep3/10
Focus7/10
Workout3/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype3/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
2003 in context
The 365 songs we’ve measured from 2003 average a dynamic range of 6.5/10. At 5/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity44
Dynamics44
Tempo19
Surprise50
Density33
Predictability100
Vocal force25
Trigger load13
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Sail to the Moon"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Sail to the Moon" by Radiohead?
"Sail to the Moon" by Radiohead has a tempo of 75 BPM (Adagio (slow)). At half-time that is 38 BPM, and at double-time 150 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Sail to the Moon" by Radiohead?
"Sail to the Moon" by Radiohead rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 5/10, moderate sudden changes, layered texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "Sail to the Moon" — what is its dynamic range?
"Sail to the Moon" has a dynamic range of 5/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "Sail to the Moon" have sudden or surprising changes?
Yes. "Sail to the Moon" uses surprise as a compositional feature. Expect unsignaled transitions.
What is "Sail to the Moon" best for?
In our library "Sail to the Moon" is recommended for: deep listening, introspective, meltdown recovery. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Sail to the Moon" released?
"Sail to the Moon" is from 2003, on the album "Hail to the Thief". It appears in our 2000s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Sail to the Moon"?
We tag "Sail to the Moon" as contemplative, dreamy, melancholy. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Sail to the Moon"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "Sail to the Moon" good for running?
Not really — at 75 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Sail to the Moon" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (5/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "Sail to the Moon" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "Sail to the Moon"?
"Sail to the Moon" is Moderate intensity — fine for most listeners, but with enough dynamic activity that it works best as active listening rather than background.
Songs with the same DNA
layered texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
Safer alternatives with a similar feel
These songs share similar moods but with a gentler sensory profile.
What this song means to people
No stories yet. Be the first.
Share what this song means to you
Keep exploring
Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.