"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Scatterbrain" by Radiohead. Noticeable climb from quiet to loud. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: contemplative, introspective, melancholy, spacious. 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.
95
BPM
Scatterbrain by Radiohead is 95 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 48 BPM · Double-time 190 BPM · released 2003
Fan image for "Scatterbrain"
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.
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Song DNA
Notes: Calming drum track with descending guitar creates an atmospheric foundation, but Thom Yorke's vocals glitch subtly to add textural quirks. The track builds gradually with layered instrumentation before a key change creates dynamic shift.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening focus meditation
A melancholic, atmospheric track from Radiohead's sixth album exploring themes of chaos, media transience, and the search for peace amid societal turmoil.
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Moods: contemplative, introspective, melancholy, spacious
Traditions: alternative rock, art rock
At a glance
"Scatterbrain" by Radiohead
95 BPM, dynamic range 6/10, layered texture, dynamic 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 6/10 means this song moves. Expect a real volume climb between quiet sections and the loudest part of the arrangement — enough that you may want to set the initial volume below where you'd normally land.
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 medium — conventional structure overall, with one or two moments that deviate from what you'd expect.
Vocal style: dynamic 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 6/10 sits below the artist average of 6.6, making it the #58 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
- Sail to the Moon — moderate DR 5
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 about average than the year average. Explore more from the 2000s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
Why Post-Rock Works for Focus — The Logic of Slow Builds
Why post-rock holds attention that slides off everything else: long builds, few sudden changes, and …
How to Build the Perfect Focus Playlist for Work — A Sensory-Rated Approach
How to Build the Perfect Focus Playlist for Work — A Sensory-Rated Approach — A guide for sensory-se…
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive li…
How fast is "Scatterbrain"?
95 BPM — Medium (midtempo / pop 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
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 95 BPM.
When "Scatterbrain" 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 — 95 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.
Why Post-Rock Works for Focus — The Logic of Slow Builds
Why post-rock holds attention that slides off everything else: long builds, few sudden changes, and enough happening to occupy the part of y…
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — 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…
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
54/100 intensity
See how “Scatterbrain” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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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 74% of songs, calmer than the other 26%. Its intensity reading of 54/100 comes from a dynamic range of 6/10, layered texture, moderate shifts, and dynamic 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 79% 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
Yellow Flicker Beat — Lorde · 99%Nylon Smile — Portishead · 99%SWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE — Tyler, the Creator · 99%Terrified — Childish Gambino · 98%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep0/10
Focus4/10
Workout4/10
Dinner7/10
Party / hype4/10
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 6/10, this track is right in line with its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Nylon Smile — PortisheadSWEET / I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE — Tyler, the CreatorYellow Flicker Beat — Lorde
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity54
Dynamics56
Tempo31
Surprise50
Density33
Predictability50
Vocal force75
Trigger load25
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Scatterbrain"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Scatterbrain" by Radiohead?
"Scatterbrain" by Radiohead has a tempo of 95 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 48 BPM, and at double-time 190 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Scatterbrain" by Radiohead?
"Scatterbrain" by Radiohead rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 6/10, moderate sudden changes, layered texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "Scatterbrain" — what is its dynamic range?
"Scatterbrain" has a dynamic range of 6/10. Noticeable climb from quiet sections to loudest point. Set opening volume slightly lower than your preferred peak.
Does "Scatterbrain" have sudden or surprising changes?
Yes. "Scatterbrain" uses surprise as a compositional feature. Expect unsignaled transitions.
What is "Scatterbrain" best for?
In our library "Scatterbrain" is recommended for: anxiety relief, deep listening, focus, meditation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Scatterbrain" released?
"Scatterbrain" is from 2003, on the album "Hail to the Thief". It appears in our 2000s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Scatterbrain"?
We tag "Scatterbrain" as contemplative, introspective, melancholy, spacious. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Scatterbrain"?
The vocal style is dynamic vocals.
Is "Scatterbrain" good for running?
Not really — at 95 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Scatterbrain" good for studying?
Only partially. The song's dynamic range (6/10) means there will be loud moments that break focus during deep work.
Can I use "Scatterbrain" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "Scatterbrain"?
"Scatterbrain" 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.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.