The 10 most depressing Radiohead songs (2024)

Sometimes, whether an artist intends to or not, they become associated with a specific sentiment or emotion, such as sexiness, anger, or happiness. For Radiohead, the feelings most often tied to their music are sadness and depression. They’ve attracted legions of fans regardless, finding solace in Thom Yorke’s propensity for singing about hopelessness and despair.

In fact, Radiohead have become so notorious as a ‘depressing band’ that they can often be found in memes about being sad and lonely. The band emerged with ‘Creep’ back in 1992, a song which was blacklisted from several radio stations at the time for being too miserable and mopey. “I’m a creep/ I’m a weirdo/What the hell am I doin’ here?/I don’t belong here,” Yorke sings, creating an anthem for outcasts and loners across the world in the process.

The band have come a long way since then, experimenting with various instruments and production techniques to much success. They established themselves as one of alternative rock’s most vital voices, although they’ve often pushed the boundaries of the genre by incorporating everything from free jazz to unusual electronic sounds into their music.

However, sadness has always been a throughline, defining much of Yorke’s lyrical output. There are certain Radiohead songs which are so depressing that they almost knock you off your feet, startling you with their bleakness. Take In Rainbows, for example, which features various upbeat tracks like ‘15 Step’, ‘Bodysnatchers’, ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ and ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’. Then, the last song arrives – ‘Videotape’ – and you’re suddenly winded. Yorke sings about dying and leaving behind a videotape, beginning with, “When I’m at the pearly gates.”

There are a few earth-shattering moments on Kid A, too, like ‘How To Disappear Completely’ and ‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’. Who can forget Yorke singing “I’m not here/ This isn’t happening” on the former, with desperation emanating from his voice?

If you’ve ever wondered what the ten most depressing Radiohead songs are, according to science, look no further. A fan named Charlie Thompson used his technical skills to use data to find out the answer. He created a ‘gloom index’ by using data from Spotify’s Web API and Genius Lyrics API, analysing how sad the songs sounded and how many lyrics were associated with sadness. Thus, by combining the data and scoring every song on the ‘gloom index’, he discovered the ten ‘most depressing’ tracks the band has ever made.

‘Videotape’ only comes in at number ten, with A Moon Shaped Pool’s ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief’ taking number nine. The cinematic track is definitely one of the band’s most underrated cuts, but ‘Videotape’ is arguably much more depressing in its sparseness. ‘High and Dry’ is next, an earlier cut which sees Yorke spout some rather depressing lyrics, such as “All your insides fall to pieces/ You just sit there wishing you could still make love” and “The best thing you’ve had has gone away”.

The more politically charged ‘Dollars & Cents’ from Amnesiac comes in at number seven, while ‘Exit Music (For a Film)’, the euphoric OK Computer moment written for Romeo + Juliet, is next. The top five takes us back to Amnesiac with ‘Pyramid Song’, one of the album’s greatest songs. Yorke sings about the afterlife here, “And we all went to heaven in a little row boat,” a common theme in his writing. Then, we’re back to OK Computer with ‘Let Down’, which sees Yorke comment on feelings of disappointment.

‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’ is apparently the third most depressing Radiohead song, with a less popular cut, ‘Give Up The Ghost’, beating it to second place. The track is from The King of Limbs, one of the band’s less popular albums, and it sees Yorke largely repeat “Don’t hurt me” over and over – no wonder it scored so high on the depressing lyrical content test.

Taking the top spot is ‘True Love Waits’ from Radiohead’s most recent album, A Moon Shaped Pool, which was actually first performed as far back as 1995. Written shortly after meeting his future wife, Rachel Owen, the song sees Yorke declare his desperate need for her, singing, “I’ll drown my beliefs/ To have your babies.” Yet, when it was reworked for the band’s 2016 album, released shortly after they divorced, the song sounded considerably sadder, with Yorke singing these same words over gentle piano. Owen would pass away a few months after the song was released, making it even sadder with context. However, with or without context, the song is still painfully depressing, with Yorke repeating, “Just don’t leave/Don’t leave.”

• 10. ‘Videotape’
• 9. ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief’
• 8. ‘High and Dry’
• 7. ‘Dollars & Cents’
• 6. ‘Exit Music (For A Film)’
• 5. ‘Pyramid Song’
• 4. ‘Let Down’
• 3. ‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’
• 2. ‘Give Up The Ghost’
• 1. ‘True Love Waits’

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