The best career closer (final track on final album) ever?

Suggested already: Pulp - Sunrise, Talk Talk - Runeii

XTC - The Wheel And The Maypole is bloody good iirc

"The Future is Now" - the Boo Radleys

Thin White Rope - The Clown Song (both on their last studio album and the live album after that - it's just the most perfect comedown after the storm)

thread needs Southall's presence, especially with regard The Beta Band - Pure For, a song I know he has a thing for

Joy Division - "Decades"

Runeii's great and beautiful and stuff, but it's not in the running here I don't think; it's not a highlight for the band or the album it's on, arguably.

Pure For is a contender, that's for sure.

Juno "Killing It In a Quiet Way"
Fugazi "The Argument"

Wrecking Ball by Gillian Welch, if she's finished with recording.

The Argument is a fucking awesome shout.

Blur "Battery In Your Leg"
Sleater-Kinney "Let's Call It Love / Night Light" (cheating, slightly)

ABBA "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room"

Minor Thread - "Salad Days"

The Triffids - Fairytale Love

Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Kind of.

Uncle Tupelo - "Steal the Crumbs"

Nocturn / Aerial is an awesome 1-2 killer closer punch, assuming Kate Bush sinks back into an eternity of doing the dishes naked.

I really think Runeii makes peace with *the end*, whatever that is, better than almost any other song I can name; it's an almost perfectly just-so piece of music, and it says everything it has to say, no more.

Grandaddy's This Is How It Always Starts would be an absolutely prime, shining, solid-gold contender if they hadn't put a silly novelty cover after it for no reason except pointless homage. Fortunately, I have deleted this song from my iTunes copy (it's more or less the only album I've actually had to tamper with), so it ends on that beautiful note of cyclical desolation.

Not heard some of these...will have to look out.

Battery In Your Leg? Disagree. It crossed my mind but was quickly, quickly booted out. It's just not quite good enough, and besides, they're not necessarily over. Sleater-Kinney shout would be an *excellent* one if they were the same track, aye

Seconding Euler's post.

Also, it depends on whether or not you consider From a Basement on the Hill his "final album" -- some might say it's Figure 8 and this was unfinished, but because I do:

Elliott Smith - "A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free"

Catch My Drift by AR Kane.

Soon by MBV?!

Runeii does have that sense of finality, I guess.

ABBA's "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" is to me the perfect career closer, nostalgic, elegiac, morbid, final . . .

Long awaited darkness falls
Casting shadows on the walls
In the twilight hour I am alone
Sitting near the fireplace, dying embers warm my face
In this peaceful solitude
All the outside world subdued
Everything comes back to me again
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

Half awake and half in dreams
Seeing long forgotten scenes
So the present runs into the past
Now and then become entwined, playing games within my mind
Like the embers as they die
Love was one prolonged good-bye
And it all comes back to me tonight
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

I close my eyes
And my twilight images go by
All too soon
Like an angel passing through my room

All Apologies! Where Did You Sleep Last Night!

a second for : Nirvana - All Apologies
Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - Velvet Underground (Squeeze doesn't count)

How many people will rep for Prince of Mars if I mention it? Ned?

Crime & the City Solution - The Last Dictator (part 1-4)

Unintended ones that have a stroke of irony in their accidental closingness rule this thread.

Yawning At Comets.

Into The Storm.

oh wait I just remembered the all-time no-exceptions total and utter winner of this conjecture

it is

mark this well:

GY!BE - Motherfucker = Redeemer Pt. 2

that fucking piece of music says everything GY!BE wanted to ever say inside 10 minutes of sonic terror, storm, bliss, and resolution

xxp came to post All Apologies

Big Black - Bombastic Intro

(lol)

yeah, I'm not a huge fan otherwise but All Apologies is a pretty tremendous career ender.

In My Hour of Darkness - Gram Parsons

Gospel Plow.

I suspect it's not unintended but Camper Van Beethoven's "Come On Darkness" hits the morbid spot.

although fuck they had a reunion (which shouldn't count I don't think but oh well)

Metallica - "Dyers Eve"

One thing I am learning from my trawl through my music collection,

is that bands have this remarkably tenacious ability not to break up

If only Sleazy would have stopped fiddling with their unfinished albums after the first official last one, then Coil - Going Up (on Ape Of Naples) would have been perfect.

yeah I have heard that Coil song and it seems pretty appropriate

yeah I was about to say that Big Star's "Take Care" was another good one but then I remembered they did a reunion album a few years ago.

Love Spreads. Best comeback single and best closer.

you've forgotten THE FOZ, Nick XD

(which is a WAY more appropriate career-closer for that shambles of a band)

Arab Strap - There is No Ending

The Dismemberment Plan - "Ellen And Ben"

Mr. Bungle - "Goodbye Sober Day"

Dead Boys "Ain't it Fun"

In the unintended irony category, but also a candidate for best more generally, Roy Orbison's "Careless Heart".

I thought of "Ellen and Ben" but it's not exactly a career highlight IMO. there is something weirdly poignant about it, though.

GBV- Huffman Prairie Flying Field

Anthemic as hell, flight imagery about Dayton, a real feel of finality to it...

I had a feeling Goodbye Sober Day would make an appearance. Great song, but now we're getting towards the stage where almost every career closer of a now-defunct band I like is getting nominated...

Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

yeah I was about to say that Big Star's "Take Care" was another good one but then I remembered they did a reunion album a few years ago.

additionally there were different tracklistings when the original LP version was first released. i think the original US (and recently reissued version) end with "Thank You Friends" which is a far weaker closing track when compared to "Take Care"

"skeleton makes good" -- captain beefheart. he sure as hell did and not many people get to walk away on top of their game like that

has anyone said "her majesty" yet? if not, that.

I had a feeling Goodbye Sober Day would make an appearance. Great song, but now we're getting towards the stage where almost every career closer of a now-defunct band I like is getting nominated...

― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters)

nah i really thought about this for about an hour and its my top choice, way above all the other alternatives

"Underwater Moonlight" - The Soft Boys. All the random crap and the twenty-years-on reunion never happened.

almost every career closer of a now-defunct band I like is getting nominated...

I don't expect anyone is going to nominate Hüsker Dü's You Can Live at Home Now, or Cop Shoot Cop's Money Drunk (if only they'd ended Release with The Divorce (and not have it fadeout) )

From the Morning by Nick Drake works real well...

Or how about A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free by Elliott Smith (Assembled and released after he died but I count it as his final album)

i would also think neutral milk hotel's "two headed boy, pt. 2" would get consideration

on a slightly different tip, but just about perfect:

Jawbox "Apollo Amateur" (last song they recorded)

Metallica - "Dyers Eve"

― kshighway, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 3:17 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol good one, never figured you for a Metallica purist

Tip for bands watching this thread: make sure every album ends in something memorable. You never know you might split up afterwards or worse, like Morphine's Mark Sandman :-(

hahahaha yeah that (C$C) was one of the ones i was hoping to be wrong about! i even checked the track listing xxxxpost

Was just gonna say Two Headed Boy Pt.2 is a pretty good career closer

x-post

also if by career closer it's implied that posthumous albums released to profit from an artist's passing don't count..

the notorious b.i.g.'s "you're nobody (till somebody kills you)" is quite the closing statement

"I don't expect anyone is going to nominate Hüsker Dü's You Can Live at Home Now..."

that's a good one

The Smiths: I Won't Share You. A change in pace and direction, and very moving.

Big Black "He's A Whore" on the CD version anyway.

Is The End by The Beatles too obvious to mention? Last song all four ever recorded together, last song on Abbey Road...

Is The End by The Beatles too obvious to mention?

Her Majesty comes after it.

How about Riders On The Storm: The Doors

Zombies "Time of the Season"

If only Police had ended "Synchronicity" with "Tea In The Sahara" or "Wrapped Around Your Finger", and not the forgettable "Murder By Numbers".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg8iBfyxy8o

Does "Don't Hang Up" by 10cc count? It was last on the last album by the classic four piece lineup.

No. Sorry.

The release of The Embassy Tapes ruins mine (which would have been "President of Vice" by Nation of Ulysses, a song that would give me suicide fantasies when I was fifteen)

The Specials' "Enjoy yourself (reprise)", for the levels of irony...

"Surrogate Drone" by Swans off of Soundtracks for the Blind fits the bill, although Gira has recently stated he may record as Swans again.

"I'm Not The Man" by 10,000 Maniacs off of Our Time In Eden doesn't really cut it. Should have been "Stockton Gala Days" instead.

The best one I can think of is "Just For A Moment" by Ultravox off of Systems of Romance. Their last album with John Foxx, so the end of one version of the group at least. An utterly chilling song, wonderfully described by one critic (after the fact) as "making Thom Yorke's bedroom angst anthems sound like a night in the pub with Dodgy."

If only Police had ended "Synchronicity" with "Tea In The Sahara"

Geir, they did! On the original LP release anyway. 'Murder By Numbers' was added on the cassette or something I think, but it wasn't on the album proper.

I was going to say something about this but I was afraid my memory was tricking me.

Slint 'Good Morning Captain' is an obvious shout to me but if ppl are keen to try and overlook bands with less than like 90 minutes of musical output then I understand

Japan - Cantonese Boy (last song on Tin Drum). Although this is basically the thread of bands who split up or died before they started to suck, no?

or pulled one last rabbit out of the hat..

Argument is one of Fugazi's best song ever and so(unless anybody comes up with anything better) it's miles ahead of the field here.

Richard & Linda Thompson "Wall of Death"

"Two Suns In The Sunset" from The Final Cut, since the post-Waters albums don't count. A melancholy, eerie and desolate valediction.

Slint 'Good Morning Captain' is an obvious shout to me but if ppl are keen to try and overlook bands with less than like 90 minutes of musical output then I understand

― DJ AMencap (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, September 2, 2009 2:17 PM (1 hour ago)

Galaxie 500's "King of Spain, Part Two" always seemed a pretty fitting end point to me.

The best one I can think of is "Just For A Moment" by Ultravox off of Systems of Romance. Their last album with John Foxx, so the end of one version of the group at least. An utterly chilling song, wonderfully described by one critic (after the fact) as "making Thom Yorke's bedroom angst anthems sound like a night in the pub with Dodgy."

^^^this song is brilliant, yes, and like The Beta Band without Steve Mason (renamed Aliens), Ultravox! should have done more than simply ditch the exclamation point.

jesus christ how has no one mentioned aaliyah??

the final track of the standard version of aaliyah, "what if" is easily eligible for this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4D2ox-4Kk

but taking the final track of the international version, "try again", and there is no contest whatsoever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEF_-IcnQC4

RIP babygirl

My cd of Aaliyah ends with "Messed Up" which isn't as great a career closer as "What If".

Came here to say The Dismemberment Plan - Ellen And Ben, but some dude beat me to it.

Jawbox - Absenter (not counting the Tori Amos cover which follows it as a ghost track)

Bedhead - "The Present"
12 Rods - "Telephone Holiday"
The Olivia Tremor Control - "Hilltop Procession"

hahaha hilltop procession came on my ipod shuffle just earlier and it was great and it never occurred to me that it was a farewell track

Yeah 'Try Again' was the first thing that occurred to me. Also 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' from Nirvana Unplugged.

archers of loaf, white trash heroes. bit of a departure but i'm still v fond of it.

Jellyfish--"Brighter Day" pretty much sums up the band, and their kitchen sink.

Galaxie 500's "King of Spain, Part Two" always seemed a pretty fitting end point to me.

― Bill A,

just what i came to post

"Build", The Housemartins.

(tho they had a final, non-album single "There Is Always Something There To Remind Me")

The actual career closer by The Specials (not counting Special AKA, which was something else) was "Ghost Town", which is probably the best swansong ever.

sex pistols "emi"

"Powerless" by Attacco Decente.

The actual career closer by The Specials (not counting Special AKA, which was something else) was "Ghost Town", which is probably the best swansong ever.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Friday, 4 September 2009 18:01 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Except it would be "Friday night, saturday morning", which is alright but..

Her Majesty

riders on the storm

xpost Yes "Tea In The Sahara" closes Synchronicity. a good choice..

and yes "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"

kind of cheating but i like the 5 song sequence starting with U-Love and ending with Donuts (Intro) that Dilla left us with on Donuts

Radiohead - Videotape

Chavez - "You Must Be Stopped"

"It's No Game (Part 2)" from 'Scary Monsters & Supercreeps. Yes it was his last album. It was too. It was. I'm sure of it.

The Beatles closed with "You know my name (look up the number)" : Discuss...

If you don't count skeleton versions of bands, the Velvets' "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" and the Dolls' "Human Being." They would have made for as perfect an exit as Jordan's shot against Utah in '98; of course, the story technically continued in all three cases.

Band of Susans terminated with a cover of Ahead that is simultaneously the best thing they ever did, the best Wire cover ever, and one of the greatest songs in the history of music.

Who cares if it wasn't on one of their albums...

refused - the apollo programme was a hoax
nick drake - from the morning

Manic Street Preachers (version I) - 'PCP'

Eleanor Rigby - up the junction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4A_p43aFFc

another for The Doors - Riders On The Storm

The Doors might be unique in that, depending on mood, you can make a good case for first-song-on-first-album and last-song-on-last-album being the best thing they ever did.

earl brutus : male wife

a 3 minute blast of noise and typical off the cuff mad lyrics with the final words, 'don't get testy with me guy'

a perfect end to their double bill of lager fuelled chaos.

T. Rex - Teen Riot Structure

The Beach Boys - "Summer's Gone". A perfect career-closer.

The Who, "Tea and Theatre"

Very obvious choice for me, but Drive Like Jehu's "Sinews" is a song that still kills me about 20 years after hearing it for the first time. It encapsulates most of what was great about them, but has an spookiness and emotional weight to it that just ends that album (and their career it turns out) on a seriously heavy note. For many years the righteousness of the outro got me so worked up that I had to put the record on again.

LCD Soundsystem - Home : Maybe not their best or most explosive but it's really a distillation of what made them so great. They've already had their "big moment" songs so this is a great way to wind things down.

Neu! - After Eight

Orbital - Where is it Going? (if indeed it comes to that)

Queen - "The Show Must Go On". (And didn't it just.)

REM - "Electrolite"

One Two, Very Good (digital single). Ending a 10-year career on an endless-summer, everything is all right note after a great, but tortured, final EP.

Actually maybe it was only a 7-year career. But still.

REM - "Electrolite"

― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, October 31, 2012 10:33 AM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Riders On The Storm" is an acceptable bending of the rules but c'mon man

So is "All Apologies", btw

Simon & Garfunkel - "Song For The Asking"

from the morning

Pavement - Carrot Rope

Also I'm not a huge fan of Talking Heads' Naked but 'Cool Water' is a great closing track.

I've always loved the way "The Royal Scam" closes the album of the same name.

Does "Golden slumbers" / "Carry that weight" / "The end" count or does "Her majesty" get in the way of that argument?

Bugger, just seen it mentioned already.

How about "You can live at home"? Or has that been done as well?

It's not the album closer, but if we count it as the last of his tracks on an album he recorded, John Lennon's "Dear Yoko" on Double Fantasy kinda sums him up.

Metallica "Dyers Eve"

GBV had a perfect one until they went and made more records

^^^Yes x1000

40 versions as the end of 1st era Wire is pretty much perfection in distilling the balance of melody & tension they had reached by 154.

women - eyesore

Metallica "Dyers Eve"

― Siegbran, Wednesday, October 31, 2012 8:34 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

HahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAhahahahha!

David Bowie's "Bring Me The Disco King" makes for a suitably elegiac career-closer.

Love Women's "Eyesore", and that record (Public Strain), so much. Still sad about the death of the guitarist and (I assume) break-up of this band. Feel like they had a huge amount of potential to build on that sound. Great Fall/Winter record.

David Bowie's "Bring Me The Disco King" makes for a suitably elegiac career-closer.

good call.

though i still live in hope that its not the end ..

Bump.

Some prescience there from mark e.

What insanalist suggested Videotape? Idiocy.

My chemical romance's "vampire money" now a good answer to this

I'll stand by my post 14 years ago, "Oh! Sweet Nuthin’," but want to add Janis Joplin's "Get It While You Can" to a short list of runners-up.

Christgau was big on Howard Tate; he had an album by him in his '60s core collection ('70s book). I'm surprised that I don't have a greatest hits myself (I used to see a Verve compilation around--guess it was always a little pricey). Didn't realize "Get It While You Can" was his song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PawalWXUk

I’m going to assume “A moon shaped pool” is the final Radiohead album and closing their career with “true love waits” is kind of cool considering the song had been around since 1995 and it was attempted in the studio for several albums. It was a song that was sort of haunting the band for decades, a fitting closer for their career.

That’s if it’s really their final album which I’m going to predict it is.

Bowie's "I can't give everything away" is a pretty perfect career closer.

fugazi 'the argument' indeed

doesn't really count but jawbox's cover of 'cornflake girl' is good

sugar 'explode and make up' tho

(Oh! Sweet Nuthin' is a great pick but . . . )

yea Bowie kinda knocked this outta the park

Bowie is a perfect album closer

Either "Motion of Ariel", the last song on the last full Loud Family album Attractive Nuisance, or "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever", the last Scott Miller song on What If It Works, the collaboration with Anton Barbeau.

Talk Talk - Runeii

and "A New Jerusalem" on Mark Hollis, and the two minutes of silence that follows it.

I've heard "Wanda Lu" by Tim Buckley described as a particularly unfortunate example of a weak final song.

bowie is the most boring possible answer to this question

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk3aSPZlSHs

my new answer to this is Tyro (and by extension Toenut) bowing out of music entirely with Remember When We Were Very Young, which isn't on the internet, and thus remains my secret and you'll have to trust me

hilariously enough, most of the suggestions upthread weren't even the last song from the last album in the end

obviously this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myVEzbFVO0Y

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - voodoo chile (slight return)

George Harrison- Got My Mind Set On You

Bob Marley - Redemption song

Is a very fitting swan song methinks

I wish there was a treaty between your love and mine

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - voodoo chile (slight return)

Since Band Of Gypsys was the final album released during his lifetime — new material, new performances, personally overseen by Hendrix — I’d think it would be “We Gotta Live Together.” Decent enough, but not as heavy or poignant as “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).”

But that album is not THE “Jimi Hendrix Experience”

Lou Reed - "Junior Dad"

It's not my favorite of theirs by any stretch, but "Two Suns in the Sunset" is a pretty good closer to the Waters-era Pink Floyd.

Battery In Your Leg used to be such a great example of this

It's not my favorite of theirs by any stretch

It is mine

Yeah, there was a whole conversation about this on another thread. I still remember buying it when it came out and thinking (1) it sounded like a Roger Waters solo album, and (2) it sounded exhausted.

Normally I'd be the last to mention the Beatles (in any context), but I think "Get Back" is a pretty great capper to their career.

Several people advocating for "Her Majesty" upthread.

Chet Baker's "Almost Blue" from the Let's Get Lost soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4IridL_2XU

xp Oh, sorry... I don't know what that is (isn't Let It Be their last album?). Lol

Buckingham/McVie: "Carnival Begin"

Goodbye Baby is also a great last FMac track.

the original Cockney Rebel - Tumbling Down

xp Oh, sorry... I don't know what that is (isn't Let It Be their last album?). Lol

Interesting question; Abbey Road was recorded after, but released before, Let it Be. I think the judges would accept either.

XPS There was a new Fleetwood Mac EP that came out shortly before Christine came back, but it's kinda obscure (initially download only, Buckingham 's "Sad Angel" popped on the deluxe 50 Years-The Chain comp).

xp Thanks; guess I should probably have my I Love Music account frozen for a few weeks or something, as punishment for that particular error…

xp Yeah I meant just in terms of the albums. A bit of a sad false start that EP in hindsight.

“John Prine - when I get to heaven” is an all time closer. Only he could get away with something so on the nose.

I’m okay with Ode to the Mets being the strokes final song, it’s a very strong way to go out

I'm Gonna Crawl, or really All My Love. Led Zep peaked in their final twelve minutes :)

i'm sorry but no

The Blue Nile - Stay Close

and (presumably and sadly)

Low - The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)

Ohhhhh fuck that's who I was thinking of! I knew there was a recent addition thy completely raised the bar for this

*that

I haven't often said on here how The Price You Pay is probably my favourite Low song these days

Sisters of Mercy "I Was Wrong"

Co-sign the price you pay. Devastating song

I do consider The End as the final real song on the final Beatles record, with Her Majesty being a bit of a silly bonus 'P.S.', but I acknowledge it's a bit of a stretch.

Some others:

Peter Gabriel Genesis: It
Phil Collins Genesis: Fading Lights
Roxy Music: Tara
Oasis: Soldier On

With “DJ”, “Disarray” and “The Price You Pay”, Low managed three absolutely crushing album closers in a row. If any of those three albums had been a final album the last song would have felt like a resonant full stop.

The Yardbirds - "Think About It"

White horses is a great couplet to the price you pay. You know what is called king from the first track of the last album, and the last (literally) blends into the first

*coming, not called king sheesh autocorrect

fading lights otm

I like that the final song on the final Cure album of their lengthy upwards ascent is 'End'.

Actually, the final track of their imperial phase was called The Top, which would have been another very fine way to go out

*cheery grin*

Sure the game gets a lot easier if you draw an arbitrary boundary at the last album you liked.

that was kind of my point lol

my point wasn't connected to the main thread but nor was it 'the last album I liked'. Wish was the final album in a long chain to outsell the previous one.

It's parallel is Higher Love.

Its

Moloko - Over & Over
Joanna Newsom - Time, as a symptom
Digable Planets - For corners

Does My Favorite Things from The Olatunji Concert counts ?

"over & over" is a good pick

Did Joanna Newsom die?

Does My Favorite Things from The Olatunji Concert counts ?

― Nabozo

see to me (and with bowie as well) we're talking about a different thing - "career closer" is different from "dying song". so for instance "skeleton makes good" is a "career closer" (and a good one, imo) - something like peter laughner playing "summertime blues" or jimmie rodgers singing "years ago" basically on his deathbed is a "dying song".

with hendrix... you could say it was "voodoo chile", the last song he played at his last concert, but then he did that rather unimpressive jam session... to me, the equivalent of his "dying song" is that poem. same sentiment as the end of "voodoo chile"... till we meet again.

and then of course there's the question of "Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele?"

"effervescing elephant" is not a very impressive career closer.

what I really hate is when bands go out on a high note with an amazing career closing track, then reunite with a shit album and ruin it

I do like Black Sabbath's "Dear Father" as a career closer. it's not like, one of the best Sab songs of all time or anything, but it's solid, and it ends with the same rainstorm that began Black Sabbath's recorded career, making it a nice poetic bookend.

A few that haven't been mentioned

Scritti Politti - Robin Hood
Orange Juice - Salmon Fishing In New York
Portishead - Threads (we're never getting a new album are we?)
Life Without Buildings - Sorrow

bill evans - "we will meet again"

Did Joanna Newsom die?

― INDEPENDENTS DAY BY STEVEN SPILBERG (President Keyes), Wednesday, June 21, 2023 8:34 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i thought i read she has a new album coming out?

Can't believe I'm the first to suggest "The Last" by the Replacements. Not among their best songs, but dead on subject matter.

xpost Yeah, sure, it's been awhile since her last album, but she's only 41, so I wouldn't be calling something her final album just yet.

xpost - the big thing is if you consider all shook down the last replacements or first paul westerberg solo album

Or the 3rd Goo Goo Dolls album

That Queen song mentioned above, The Show Must Go On, because when I first heard it, it made me think "damn that's a hell of a song to go out on" and ponder the topic of this thread well before this board ever existed.

The Walkabouts, "Horizon Fade"

"The Show Must Go On" wasn't their final song though. They put out the Made in Heaven album after Mercury's death.

Can't believe I'm the first to suggest "The Last" by the Replacements. Not among their best songs, but dead on subject matter.

A tribe called quests last album should have ended with “lost somebody” or “the space program” or any other track than “the Donald”

De La Soul’s ‘Exodus’ is a fitting final track

'The Donald' is a highly appropriate closer!

yes!

Think my favorites have all been mentioned, but I thought of a couple other good ones:

Lilys - Scott Free
Ween - Your Party

I guess it's possible either/both of them could still put out more albums, but seems unlikely at this point...

"Oh, Sweet Nothin'" is pretty good

Yes, good pick!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYtCMUjz6Kw

Loool!

The Loft "Time"

Your Party was really the perfect way for Ween to go out. Great pick

If the Cure ever actually release their long-forthcoming album, then 'Endsong' (part of their current live set) is the latest of their album closers that could also be career closers - and IMO a pretty worthy one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfcFZd9oGJk

I listened to The Hoople today, and it’s a good way to wrap up what that band did.

Faces- “Ohh La La”

Ooh rather

I shoulda mentioned the song! Roll Away the Stone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MyJHh451Y4

"Your Party" is a good call.

Also:
"Doin' Time" - Sublime
"Last Christmas" - Wham!

Mott the Hoople have a half-dozen elegiac tributes to themselves and rock and roll, any of which could stand as career capstones.

Wham! are a funny example, because "Last Christmas" came out as a single in 1984, 18 months before Music From the Edge of Heaven; also, their last album in the UK was The Final, whose final track is "The Edge of Heaven".

Rush's "The Garden".

Its tragic now that Neil's gone, but also incredibly profound and so perfect. What a sublime way for a band to take a final bow.

oh fuck, that one is perfect

The Faces put out a couple non-LP singles after Ooh La La--as did Mott after The Hoopoe, who went even further after Hunter left following those releases by putting out two more albums before retiring the band name.

Purple Mountains - Maybe I’m the only one for me

In the same vein, Jason Molina’s “A sad hard change”. Not his best song, but perhaps the most relevant and telling of him leaving soon. Normally even in his darkest tracks there’s some ray of hope, this one just felt like he had finally given up.

Isis - Threshold Of Transformation

I'm going to go ahead and post the tune, as I figure it is fairly obscure. Got to say Blue Cheer's last album "What Doesn't Kill You" is way better than you might expect and worth checking out, if you are into vintage heavy sludge. This is the final track and fitting for this thread I would think. It came out in 2007 and was their first record since 1991, when new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWLM6bm7EoU

Steely Dan's "Everything Must Go" belongs in this conversation, though it may be a bit on the nose.

Merle Haggard’s last song: “I’m leavin’ in the early mornin’ / Eat my breakfast in the sky”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xKRv23SVE

Jay Reatard - There is No Sun

Willis Alan Ramsay closes his only album with “northeast texas women”

This isn't on an album, and not a particularly great song – but "Footsteps on the Roof" (by Sal Trimachi & Ritchie Cordell) qualifies as the Shangri-Las' "career closer," as the b-side of their final single... and I think it's both nice & notable how the first few lines of its spoken section call back to "Dressed in Black," capping off the group's legacy:

I'll climb the stairs and shut the door
Turn the lock alone once more
I sit and stare at stars up above
And dream of the moment I'll run to my love
Come to me, come to me

(I realize "Dressed in Black" was only released the prior year; so the effect is stronger in retrospect!)

Junior Dad

Ahhh. My bad that was already said

yeah, shooting star -> memory lane -> little one -> a distorted reality...

is like...i can't even. the dude blew up the entire world

I always liked Pan Finale , on Pan Sonic's Gravitoni - but then I liked most of what they did, so yeah

I nominate Can's "In the Distance Lies the Future" from Rite Time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI9LplQdLxk

Not because it's any good. It's horrible! But it is a really good way of closing a career.

It definitely made sure that their career stayed closed.

I may be the only one who thinks this but I always thought ending their career on "Can Can" was hilarious. I dunno if I even count the reunion album, it's so weird that my brain can't even identify it as Can at all

on a similar note is YMO's final song being a strange and mostly unserious cover of "Pocketful of Rainbows"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPczRrT9pGM

anyway I know it was mentioned in the first post but XTC's "Wheel and the Maypole" is an all-timer in this regard, not only does it distill the circle of life theme that they've worked so hard but it also makes a good case for why the band had to end (because everything does) and in addition is such an incredible song that I'm still a little mad it wasn't a big hit

Bowie is an obvious one but along those lines I'd also nominate "The Rain" by Silver Apples, seems to have been written knowing fully well that it was gonna be his last song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbWN4YUnIDc

The last song on the last Motörhead album is a cover of "Sympathy for the Devil," which isn't the worst way to go out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt4Xx3vX3Lg

The Fall - "Nine Out Of Ten"

Assuming Hey What is the last album released under the Low moniker, then "The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)" is such a chilling and portentous career closer (though the same would have been true of the last tracks on the two preceding albums as well).

Low - The Price You Pay (It Must Be Wearing Off)

― Tim F, Wednesday, 21 June 2023 05:32 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ohhhhh fuck that's who I was thinking of! I knew there was a recent addition thy completely raised the bar for this

― imago, Wednesday, 21 June 2023 05:36 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

*that

― imago, Wednesday, 21 June 2023 05:37 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

I haven't often said on here how The Price You Pay is probably my favourite Low song these days

― imago, Wednesday, 21 June 2023 05:38 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

I nominate Can's "In the Distance Lies the Future" from Rite Time

but their song on the Wenders soundtrack, Last Night Sleep, was recorded in 1991. wonder if any other bands made a last album, then followed with one last single
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Zep “I’m gonna crawl”
“If I dream too much tonight / somebody please bring me down”

xp XTC did, "Spiral"/"Say It" was recorded in 2002 so a couple years after their last album came out

The Police recorded new versions of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" in '86 and they were so notoriously terrible the latter was never officially released

I still don’t think Copeland even played on those 2 recordings

he plays the Fairlight since I think he physically couldn't drum due to a broken collarbone. does that count??

I think I mentioned this on another thread already but 1970s easy listening star Demis Roussos bookended his career with a nine minute prog epic named “Who Gives A Fuck”.

“third world man” on the original SD run works

The price you pay an absolutely devastating way to cap a career. Imago otm, my favourite Low track most days as well

One of the few tracks that will give me shivers up and down from merely singing the verses in my head

My internalisation of mimi's harmony in particular. Goes beyond notes. The interplay of their vocals on that track is the purest pathos music has to offer I

most of the suggestions upthread weren't even the last song from the last album in the end

For instance:

Blur "Battery In Your Leg"
ABBA "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room"
Nocturn / Aerial
Soon by MBV?!
The Who, "Tea and Theatre"

Will anyone nominate subsequent final tracks "The Heights"/"The Swan", "Ode to Freedom", "Among Angels", "Wonder 2" or "She Rocked My World" for this honour?

"She rocked my world" ??

Really?

The deluxe edition concludes with a song called "Danny and My Ponies" if that's any more promising.

Gentle Giant “That’s…All…There…Is”

I nominate Can's "In the Distance Lies the Future" from Rite Time

but their song on the Wenders soundtrack, Last Night Sleep, was recorded in 1991. wonder if any other bands made a last album, then followed with one last single
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The Jam made a last album, then followed with one last single

Yeah, so "Shopping" would be their career closer.

In which case "You know my name (look up the number)" would do the similar job for The Beatles

wiki say: There was a further reunion in 1991 by Karoli, Liebezeit, Mooney and Schmidt to record a track for the Wim Wenders film Until the End of the World

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