“How to Disappear Completely” by Radiohead

Radiohead started writing "How to Disappear Completely" in mid-1997, out on the road behind OK Computer, and it took them until early 2000 to pin it down for Kid A, their fourth album. The title comes from Doug Richmond's 1985 book about dropping out of sight for good, and the song lives up to it: an acoustic ballad that dissolves into ambient haze and warped guitar, with Nigel Godrich producing alongside the band.

After a run of demos they finished it at their Oxfordshire studio, then took Jonny Greenwood's string arrangement, ondes Martenot and all, to a church near the studio, where the Orchestra of St John's played it. A soundcheck take had already surfaced in the documentary Meeting People Is Easy, and the finished song later drifted into Roswell and the film Life as a House.

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