Best way to end an album

probably could've worked i

should be probably could've worked in the middle just as well

Short reprise of first track?

I'd generally always go for the "huge epic blowout" option, but these days, I'm almost more for making the PENULTIMATE track the absolute screamer and ending on something short and sweet.

...gah, of course I'm voting blowout.

Big bombastic ballad.

I'm almost more for making the PENULTIMATE track the absolute screamer and ending on something short and swee

this feels like a default to me (even if the penultimate track isn't that long it's often made out as the most reverential or important somehow)

ordinary song in keeping or epic blowout

definitely none of 1 through 4

I hope some people vote for 3, but I doubt it

Voted "huge epic blowout", but who really listens to albums from start to finish any more?

Anyone who professes a vote for 4 will test my suggest ban non-usage resolve

4. sucks but mainly just because of the ripping issue

Voted "huge epic blowout", but who really listens to albums from start to finish any more?

Me! Almost always.

Voted 8, other: in this case something totally fucking unexpected (Brotherhood by New Order is a good example of this; also -- purely off the top of my head -- Jarvis's "bye-bye" at the end of This Is Hardcore, which totally freaked me out when I first heard it through a stoned half-sleep; that said, I guess that final track is very much a subset of 6. Hmm.)

I always thought an album should end like a mixtape: the big blowout track followed by a two minute acoustic downtempo number.

(My post was an exaggeration, but on the whole, "hidden tracks" are absolute bullshit imo)

^ Yes, absolutely agree.

good examples of #5:
Public Enemy - Fight The Power
Erykah Badu - Honey

because hard to see where else they could fit on the albums

and they're both ending on a "positive" note, kinda

Mew's "Frengers" ended with something that was both an 8+ minute epic blowout AND the first single. EVERYBODY WINS

Low key but atmospheric and sentimental ode

I do quite like having a lullaby or a hymn or something at end (the White Album is the obvious example of that I s'pose)

I quite like the idea of the last track as an acknowledgment that you've been on a journey of some sort.

Must stop saying 'quite like' though.

Untitled last track on Groovy Hate Fuck.

I quite like the idea of the last track as an acknowledgment that you've been on a journey of some sort.

As in "Short reprise of first track?"

Reprise of opening track is always good; what I tend to like more and more these days is... a song that feels like going home, that's not a ballad or an elegy, but that... has a certain wistful sadness to it, or a quiet triumphalism. I'm thinking Bad Days off Clouds Taste Metallic, or A Wooden Horse off one of the British Sea Power albums, or the last track on Wind In The Wires by Patrick Wolf. Something that has a sense of finality and closure but without being a blowout. Like a coda to the album.

Yeah, but that's a special circular journey though. I like journeys that are so damn heavy that there is no way back.

x-post

Spoon are quite good at that. X-post.

Mew's "Frengers" ended with something that was both an 8+ minute epic blowout AND the first single.

hmm sorta but it was more a 'bonus track' than first single, considering it was both an old single and the reissue preceded the album by quite a while

Paul's Boutique.

blowsy drunken studio singalong

Perhaps it's a bit of a cliche...but After Hours.

A Wooden Horse off one of the British Sea Power albums

I thought about this very example, Nick. It only really works because the previous track is 14 minutes of absolute fucking bombastic-torch-song-noise-freakout mayhem

just having a quick look at some of my favourite albums, i don't know that i really think the choice of final track is usually all that well done. 'gold dust woman' is a great closer, as is something like 'king of spain part 2' and 'blue line swinger'. i think that low end their albums weakly, and i hate throwaway tracks at the end..

placebo do good closers

unexpectedl

big bombastic ballad.

hate: bonus tracks after 1-2-5-10-20 minutes of silence. (does anyone NOT hate those) :)

they are always frankly infuriating and terrible

although a couple of my very favourite albums end that way, fortunately with only a very short (between 30 seconds and a minute) silence

i always wonder if the "playing time" at Amazon or sites like allmusic include the silence, which would be sort of misleading. never bothered to find the answer though.

It generally does include the silence, I think.

Crickets!

as done by both Grandaddy and Pig Destroyer

hahaha I can't believe I got those two bands in the same sentence

Pigdaddy and Gran Destroyer

as done by both Grandaddy and Pig Destroyer
And now Neko Case - over 31 minutes of crickets.

crickets are nice.

side-question: has anyone actually released an album that's 80 minutes long (or thereabouts)?

lol Tool

aerial xp

Oh fucking loads of people, innit.

hmm, which album ends like that?

closing tracks are becoming rapidly redundant in the face of itunes bonus tracks for most of the acts i like

which is good, it means the album never ends, it just gets bonus tracks added to it

Frank Zappa and the Mothers' "Freak Out!" has genuine orgasm noises on the final track

remind me never to contemplate hearing that

You'd loathe Frank Zappa, I think

^^now that is how you do a closing song. chapter and verse!

Oh no, don't tell me you're into Zappa now (xxp)

last song should be always a massive downer.
well, almost always.

I'm not, Tom, but I've heard a bit here and there

Oh that's fine, you don't want to end up as one of them

Moon Unit Jagger

"Other." To me, the last song should ideally be a shift in direction, even if it's a subtle shift; something pointing the way to the future for the act.

any examples of that in mind, Daniel?

Fodderstompf on "First Issue" PIL

Yeah, but I'll have to circle back later to name some (crazy day). (xp)

reprise of first track w/ banjos and kazoos

Fodderstompf on "First Issue" PIL

Category 2 + 3

sometimes the worst way to end an album is so completely terrible, it becomes kinda awesome (e.g. The Stone Roses - Second Coming)

All albums should end with your parents shutting off the stereo and destroying the cassette/CD.

Lock groove <-------- vinyl saddo

my favorite disc
ends in rage-filled bitter tears
and the scent of Brut

Fodderstompf on "First Issue" PIL

Category 2 + 3

I would also say it's category 6 in spirit, if not technically.

I voted for 6, of course, because the Epic Closer is, like, the name of the game.

However, I'm somewhat embarrassed that on both albums that I ever managed to release, it was 4, hidden track - in one case a 3 joke track and in the other case 5 the record company's chosen single that we hated (and also pointed the way to the future of the next group.)

worst ending to CD ever: Ash coming back into the studio after an evening of drinking, and Tim puking everywhere. Was that the debut?

Hi Dere OTM

Many forms of good closing tracks but midtempo normally to be avoided. Short, stupid and intense is a stalwart, the classic secret track. not got an issue with secret tracks, or skits, all good. A lot of the endings that stick in my mind as good are low key fading away/elegiac types, especially ones that disolve into field recordings. Or some skit/spoken word/final thought/james bond will return shit. big triumphant endings with horns, bells&whistles and a meaty anthem a fine round off, but only if the album deserves it.

EPIC EPIC EPIC EPIC

go out on a high

tragically indie list of great epic closers:

radiohead, pablo honey, blow out
pavement, crooked rain crooked rain, filmore jive
built to spill, perfect from now on, untrustable/about someone else pt2
trail of dead, source tags and codes
chemical brothers, dig your own hole, the private psychedelic reel
autechre, amber, teartear
orbital, in sides, out there somewhere pt 2
pixies, trompe le monde, SHOULD END WITH motorway to roswell

1, then 6, bollocks to the other options.

orbital, in sides, out there somewhere pt 2

this is the daddy of them all

NV OTM but for the order

Blowout, definitely. I don't mind skits but they should come as the penultimate track, then close with the bombast. Was going to agree that sometimes a short, wistful track after the big number is good, but nah, I definitely prefer to end on the blowout.

8. the shortest, sharpest, fastest song that still couldn't be a single. nobody really does this.

fuck 'blowouts' in general imo

sometimes the worst way to end an album is so completely terrible, it becomes kinda awesome (e.g. The Stone Roses - Second Coming

That was pretty much the only track on that album I could bear to listen to.

I'm quite a fan of the apposite closing line as an ender (classic example = "I'm not scared, I'm outta here" from New Adventures In Hi-Fi). I was listening to the Gaslight Anthem album yesterday and it annoyed me that Here's Looking At You Kid wasn't the final track.

in sides has the best opening and closing tracks ever imo. you could cut the rest of the lp and the three together would still be as long as pet sounds.

I'd generally always go for the "huge epic blowout" option, but these days, I'm almost more for making the PENULTIMATE track the absolute screamer and ending on something short and sweet.

OTM! I'll vote blowout as well though.

in sides has the best opening and closing tracks ever imo. you could cut the rest of the lp and the three together would still be as long as pet sounds.

― meme economist (special guest stars mark bronson), Thursday, 26 February 2009 11:14 (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

confession time: these three tracks are so good, I don't really listen to the others all that much

#8: Recorder version of 2nd single

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The epic never fails!

hate: bonus tracks after 1-2-5-10-20 minutes of silence. (does anyone NOT hate those) :)

What is even worse is finishing chord or sound effect which lasts forever and goes nowhere. See Queen's "Made In Heaven" and the last chord, which washes into some "ambient" sound and lasts for 20 minutes or something.

huge epic blowout but not necessarily 8 minutes or more

I am a sucker for a good "short sharp shock" closer, like "What People are Made Of" on Moon and Antarctica.

Electrolite

I went for epic blowout, but what I really want is a song with a long repetitious fade-out ending.

lock groove a-la Sonic Youth's Evol

8-20 min. epic blowout or bust

Electrolite, and Find The River, actually, both very much fit the thing Louis and I are talking about up thread; the mid-tempo song that feels like going home.

8. Let the drummer sing.

dan selzer right otm there

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:69-96_cover.jpg
Cornelius's album "69/96" had 96 tracks on it. The regular album ends at track 15 with a kitschy Hawaiian/show-stopper and then ocean waves continue over the tracks until track 69 where it does a short reprise of that track as a ukulele number I think, then silence until track 96 where there's a "real" bonus track. I think the CD was 69 minutes and 96 seconds long too but i'm not sure. It was stolen from me years ago but I never forgot how cool and absurd those bonus tracks were..

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

epic blowout epic blowout

Wish this poll lasted longer. Also wish I could contribute a negative vote for hidden CD tracks.

the worst album ending in my honest opinion is for 'deserters songs' by mercury rev. not an album im gonna stan for, but the delayed ending -- a bunch of wanking around with synth-strings (?) -- is some fkn bs.

what kinda fuck ending was that?

did it leave us hanging like your post did?

I dunno, ask Prince.