‘In Limbo’ despite being sonically wider, sounds more like an interlude than ‘Treefingers’. It treads the same territory that ‘Faust Arp’ would, 7 years later on ‘In Rainbows’. That specific trait may have something to do with the fact that the song lands between the two most recognized songs in Kid A. I once read on Twitter that you can’t listen to ‘Optimistic’ without ‘In Limbo’, and that’s curiously true, however it still feels like a transition between the first one and the beat-driven ‘Idioteque’.

‘In Limbo’ is also the first song that, in a purely interpretative way, doesn’t introduce a different sound in the context of the album. The song is mesmerizing, a long-winding continuation of the previous song’s coda. An echoic arpeggiated guitar, gentle drumming and Thom Yorke’s voice back in its floating state create the atmosphere necessary to accurately feel like being ‘in limbo’. The track is a state of impermanence between to very much uprooted sounds in the album.

‘In Limbo’, of course, does all this brilliantly. The song is an integral part of Kid A‘s development and thematically coherent with the rest of the tracks. It’s principal premise: “You’re living in a fantasy world” reads like Yorke telling himself that his reality is not what he thinks and he compliments this idea with the recurring loneliness that abounds in the record. ‘In Limbo’ may be a sonic interim between two well defined points, however, it is a hazy brush-stroke that feels as ethereal as it does relevant in Kid A‘s marvelous canvas.