THE BEST ALBUM-CLOSER OF ALL TIME IS...

Todd Rundgren - "S.L.U.T."
Alice Cooper - "Escape"
A Guy Called Gerald - "Sweet You"
Flying Burrito Brothers - "Hippy Boy"
Gene Clark - "Lady Of The North"
Primal Scream - "Shine Like Stars"

Obvious: "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" Jimi Hendrix Experience

Not so obvious: "Strange Loop" Liz Phair

ooohooh speaking of the Doors! When The Music's Over

does anyone else think that song is kind of transcendental?

The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset (off "Something Else")

t**t, I believe you're thinking of HEEEEADCLEEEANER, not 'Tabula Rasa'. I was going to nominate it myself, but actually I think it stands apart from the rest of the album as a piece of work entirely unto itself.

we must've two rather different Tabula Rasa's in mind, it appears.
i was thinking of Arvo Pärt's ECM alb.

I have to fight tears whenever New Order's "Dream Attack" starts.

good morning captain on spiderland

decades, the closer on Closer

since i named it on the most beautiful songs ever thread and it is the album closer on ask the ages it's naturally a contender here too:

sonny sharrock, "once upon a time"

4 words

Here Comes A Regular

thas it and thas all

-- ksg, Thursday, August 2, 2007 8:55 AM (Thursday, August 2, 2007 8:55 AM) Bookmark Link

I would've put "Answering Machine" first.

Jeez, how British is this thread? :-)

Anyway, a few that come to mind (some have previously been mentioned, but whatever).

"Get Back"
"Yahweh" off the last U2 album ... wonderful punctuation mark to an uneven record.
"Jesus is Waiting"
"The Call of Ktulu"
"Day in the Life"
"Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)"
"A Day in the Life"
"Won't Get Fooled Again"
"Scenario""
"Suicidal Thoughts"
"Stab" from BTS' "There's Nothing Wrong With Love"
"The Wall of Death" from Shoot Out the Lights
"Gone" off Kanye's last record.

since i named it on the most beautiful songs ever thread and it is the album closer on ask the ages it's naturally a contender here too:

sonny sharrock, "once upon a time"

holy shit, completely and ridiculously OTM.

steely dan - third world man

does anyone else think that song is kind of transcendental?

No, but it is a better closer than "The End".

aeroplane over the sea

-- Stevie D, Friday, August 3, 2007 9:14 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

also Nas - "It Ain't Hard to Tell"

rock n' roll suicide. fuck the haters.

also i can't wait to get off work to see my baby.

sonic youth - trilogy, a day in the life, and the end of double nickels seconded heavily.

yes, i can't wait to get off work. fantastic

The Cure - "The Top" is the correct answer.

The Chameleons one that starts the thread reminds me of music that would play when I was a little boy (two to five) and my father would rent horrible-to-mediocre 80s action movies with synth-heavy rock soundtracks. Songs like that ironically take a place in my brief 1980s childhood posthumously.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH WON'T FEED MY CHILDREN. . .

it won't.

"Echoes" !!!

echoes is fantastic, it's just that i don't want to listen to floyd again for, say, another year

I'd felt that way for a couple of years. Enough time passed, and I feel good about the Floyd once again.

I love last tracks. Sometimes I wonder if penultimates aren't better, though.

Denim - I'm Against The '80s
GZA - B.I.B.L.E.
Morrissey - Speedway

The Cure - Pornography
The Cure - The Top (ending with a show-stopping title-track is srsly the way to go)
The Cure - End (should have ended their career, one might well argue...it would certainly have seen them go out very much on top)

OTM, all of 'em.

also, rock'n'roll suicide seconded, and i'm adding suede's "still life" too.

I love last tracks. Sometimes I wonder if penultimates aren't better, though.

There was once a thread on penultimate tracks that kick the shit out of final tracks, but I can't find it.

Cocteau Twins/Harold Budd - "Ooze out and away onehow"

Love how it is so quiet then just BURSTS joyously from the speakers.

4 words

Here Comes A Regular

thas it and thas all

-- ksg, Thursday, August 2, 2007 8:55 AM (Thursday, August 2, 2007 8:55 AM) Bookmark Link

Funny, I immediately thought of that when I saw the thread title. Indeed there is a big difference between "closers" and just the last track on an album.

the more i think about it, the more i feel compelled to mention cocteau's 'pur' even if it is severely ass-kicked by the penultimate track.

that record needs more love/reconsideration

some girls are bigger than others

Chameleons, _Strange Times_ - "I'll Remember" wraps up the greatest album of all-time.

Earlier in my life I'dve suggested XTC, _The Big Express_ "This World Over" which really resonated during the Cold War but has probably lost some of it's punch now. Then again...

'Mystery Achievement', _Pretenders_

"once upon a time" is a good choice, but "here come the warm jets" is my favorite, i think.

some other good ones:
dylan - sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
flipper - sex bomb
ccr - effigy
alice coltrane - a love supreme
miles davis - jack johnson (narration - not really a track i know blah blah)

how about 'would?'

Echo and the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain

There's no way I could pick one. A great closer has to have a great album to close, and I can't pick a favorite album. I still think probably "Raining Blood" would have to take it if I could only name one. I've been thinking about it a lot, and here are some of the choices competing for my favorite closers evah:

Brad's "We" (the rest of the album doesn't hold up that well for me, but I still love this song)
Bola "Whoblo"
MF Doom "Kookies"
Mercyful Fate "Melissa"
Caribou "Barnowl"
God "Detox"
Monolake "Mass Transit Railway"
Shuttle358 "Chessa"
Six Organs of Admittance "River of Transfiguration"
Ulrich Schnauss "Goodbye"

Siouxsie & the Banshees "Land's End" comes to mind for some reason
Ride "Vapour Trail"
I guess Echo & Bunnymen's Ocean Rain would be a grand candidate but because I added that song to a mixtape years ago I no longer think of it in connection with the album.

I dunno, there's a lot of really good ones, but I'm glad someone mentioned Purple Rain cause I think that really is the best example outside of A Day In The Life.

i'd like to invite you to a taste of my chalice
it's a special one, it's made of gold

Iggy Pop-Mass Production

Earth, Wind & Fire, "Be Ever Wonderful"
Erykah Badu, "Green Eyes"
Donna Summer, "I Feel Love"
Björk, "All is Full of Love"
Beck, "Ramshackle"
Stevie Wonder, "Please Don't Go"

Mercyful Fate "Melissa"

the shaggs - "we have a saviour"

i summon mr. que

"NOM"

A thread this long, on this corner of the iWeb, and no mention of After Hours?? WTF ILX? Maybe it's too obvious or something, but then folks have been chiming upthread about A Day in the Life, which is really really brilliant and all, but After Hours is just as perfect, and The Velvets didn't have to try nearly as hard. So they win.

afterhours

-- Edward III, Thursday, August 2, 2007 4:18 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Link

afterhours otm

-- ghost rider, Thursday, August 2, 2007 4:23 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Link

Oops, I missed this. It's "After Hours" folks.

Anyway, OTM then?

"Rocket Queen" - Appetite

mookieproof also otm