"Lift" debuted live in 1996. Despite being a fan favorite with commercial potential, the band did not produce a finished recording partially in fear of the pressure of mainstream musical expectation. The song was finally released on the anniversary edition of the band's 1997 album OK Computer, 21 years after its debut.
The lyrics describe a man who has been rescued from a malfunctioning lift.
Guardian critic Alexis Petridis said the song had "an immense, air-punch-inducing chorus", and that it would have been a "huge" hit had Radiohead released it.
Spin critic, Winston Cook-Wilson, agreed that the song "seems a bit more staggering in the live videos".
Jamie Atkins, writing for Record Collector, wrote that it was "an undeniably brilliant alt rock song, with surprising echoes of the grandstanding, otherworldly melancholy of prime Smashing Pumpkins".