Scatterbrain

Radiohead recorded “Scatterbrain” during the 2002–2003 Hail to the Thief sessions, with work centred on Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood and completed at the band’s Oxfordshire studio. Nigel Godrich produced, recorded, edited and mixed the album with Radiohead, with Darrell Thorp engineering and supporting the sessions. Released by Parlophone in 2003 on Hail to the Thief, it formed part of the album’s return to more immediate band performances after Kid A and Amnesiac. Its unsettled lyric, delicate guitar pattern and fractured rhythm reflected the record’s mix of political anxiety and emotional dislocation. The track remains a valued Hail to the Thief deep cut and a clear example of Radiohead’s early-2000s balance between live-band texture and studio abstraction. Its place in the album’s second half keeps it tied to the darker, more weather-beaten side of the band’s post-millennial catalogue.