[3] Although the albums moved away from Radiohead's earlier guitar-led sound, the singer, Thom Yorke, said "Knives Out" was "no departure at all" and "survived because it was too good to miss".

[8] It features "chiming"[8] and "drifting" guitar lines, "driving" percussion, a "wandering" bassline, "haunting" vocals and "eerie" lyrics.

[9] Yorke said the lyrics were about cannibalism, the "idea of the businessman walking out on his wife and kids and never coming back", and the "thousand-yard stare when you look at someone close to you and you know they're gonna die".

Gondry described the collaboration as a "terrible experience", and said: "I showed [Yorke] a storyboard and every single detail: he was completely excited and happy for it – and then, it turned out, they all criticise me for being selfish and putting my own views on it and my own introspection ...

[16] David Merryweather of Drowned in Sound gave the "Knives Out" single nine out of ten, saying Jonny Greenwood's "chiming" guitar captured the "romantic disappointment" and "wistful ache" of the Smiths.

[8] Reviewing Amnesiac for Pitchfork, Ryan Schreiber felt the guitar line was too similar to Radiohead's 1997 song "Paranoid Android", writing: "Great melody.

"[17] In 2010, Consequence of Sound praised "Knives Out" as one of Radiohead's "creepiest" songs: "It's one of many tracks from the English quintet that tickles the bones rather than warms them.