"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Give Up the Ghost" by Radiohead. Modest rise and fall. layered composition, overlapping color planes. Mood: cathartic, introspective, melancholy. Visual style: contemporary 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 focus.
80
BPM
Give Up the Ghost by Radiohead is 80 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 40 BPM · Double-time 160 BPM · released 2011
Fan image for "Give Up the Ghost"
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: The track builds gradually with looping vocals, acoustic guitar, and subtle electronic blips, creating a warm, expansive soundscape from an initially hollow start, fading slowly with fluttering effects. A brief harmonic shift around 2:35 introduces brighter guitar harmonies for emotional contrast without jarring abruptness.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening meltdown recovery
A haunting, looping track from Radiohead's The King of Limbs featuring layered vocals pleading 'Don't hurt me,' acoustic plucking, and atmospheric builds leading to an optimistic harmonic climax.
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Moods: cathartic, introspective, melancholy
Traditions: alternative rock, experimental
At a glance
"Give Up the Ghost" by Radiohead
80 BPM, dynamic range 5/10, 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 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: mild. There are one or two transitions worth knowing about, though they're musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
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 5/10 sits below the artist average of 6.6, making it the #70 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from The King of Limbs
We have 5 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
- Lotus Flower — moderate DR 7
- Codex — moderate DR 6
- Feral — intense DR 8
- Separator — moderate DR 7
2011 context
Released in 2011. We have 373 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.4/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 2010s.
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…
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 "Give Up the Ghost"?
80 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
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 80 BPM.
When "Give Up the Ghost" 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 — 80 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
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
42/100 intensity
See how “Give Up the Ghost” 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 38% of songs, calmer than the other 62%. Its intensity reading of 42/100 comes from a dynamic range of 5/10, layered texture, mild 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 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
Tunnel of Love — Bruce Springsteen · 96%Curls — MF DOOM · 97%Roast Fish and Cornbread — Lee Scratch Perry · 98%Smoke Two Joints — Sublime · 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
Sleep5/10
Focus8/10
Workout3/10
Dinner8/10
Party / hype3/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
2011 in context
The 372 songs we’ve measured from 2011 average a dynamic range of 6.4/10. At 5/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Midnight Ravers — Bob Marley & The WailersTalkin' Blues — Bob Marley & The WailersA Thousand Miles from Nowhere — Dwight Yoakam
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity42
Dynamics44
Tempo22
Surprise25
Density33
Predictability50
Vocal force75
Trigger load25
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Give Up the Ghost"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Give Up the Ghost" by Radiohead?
"Give Up the Ghost" by Radiohead has a tempo of 80 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 40 BPM, and at double-time 160 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Give Up the Ghost" by Radiohead?
"Give Up the Ghost" by Radiohead rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 5/10, mild sudden changes, layered texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "Give Up the Ghost" — what is its dynamic range?
"Give Up the Ghost" has a dynamic range of 5/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "Give Up the Ghost" have sudden or surprising changes?
"Give Up the Ghost" has mild sudden changes — one or two transitions worth knowing about, but they are musically resolved rather than surprise-driven.
What is "Give Up the Ghost" best for?
In our library "Give Up the Ghost" is recommended for: anxiety relief, deep listening, meltdown recovery. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Give Up the Ghost" released?
"Give Up the Ghost" is from 2011, on the album "The King of Limbs". It appears in our 2010s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Give Up the Ghost"?
We tag "Give Up the Ghost" as cathartic, introspective, melancholy. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Give Up the Ghost"?
The vocal style is dynamic vocals.
Is "Give Up the Ghost" good for running?
Not really — at 80 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Give Up the Ghost" 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 "Give Up the Ghost" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Contains transitions that will wake you up.
Should I listen to "Give Up the Ghost"?
"Give Up the Ghost" 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
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.