Day 24 Slideshow: Document Giving Thanks #30DaysofGOOD

Ever since the breakout success of 1992's "Creep," a soul-baring ode of alt-rock self-loathing, many of Radiohead's harshest critics—and, frankly, even some of their biggest fans—have labeled the band's music "depressing." Perhaps most on-the-nose is a Sputnik Music assessment of 2000's Kid A: "[It] is a dark, paranoid and disturbing album, plucked from the annals of Thom Yorke’s tortured mind," they wrote. "It is cold, distant and enigmatic. It is also emotive, powerful, and depressing." As Newsweek reported in 2017, an analytics specialist even attempted to calculate a "gloom index" from Radiohead's songs. (Their most depressing track was apparently 2016's "True Love Waits.")

It's easy to understand that description given the frequent bleakness of Thom Yorke's lyrics and the intoxicating iciness that colors much of the band's post-2000s work. But it's also not a very nuanced take, especially when you factor in the role of real-life depression for many songwriters. In a 2003 fan Q&A, hosted by Musique Plus during the promotion of Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief, Yorke was asked, "How does mental health impact your music?" And his response was insightful, particularly given that public discourse surrounding depression wasn't as normalized then as it is decades later.