10 Perfect Rock Albums That Are Incredibly Sad

Anyone even slightly familiar with Radiohead knows that you're never going into one of their records to get a pick me up or anything. The words 'summer jam' aren't really in the band's vocabulary all that often, and some of their greatest moments have been when they tap into something too emotional for most people to take. Those were always scenarios in the '90s, and A Moon Shaped Pool marks the moment where that pain became real.

During the making of this project, both Thom Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich were going through some really harsh stuff in their social lives, separating from their partners as well as losing family members along the way. Though there aren't that many recently written Radiohead songs to be found, this feels like taking the songs that have been kept in the dark for so long and finally giving them a home. Burn the Witch may have dated back to the early '00s, but it took them years to get it just right by adding in the orchestral accompaniment, giving the slowburn much more power behind it.

Not long after Thom separated from his wife, she also passed away, which give a lot of these breakup songs a much needed context. They may have been shopping around a song like True Love Waits since before OK Computer was even made, but hearing Thom sing a line like "just don't leave" after his lover has passed on is enough to rip your heart right out of your chest.