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

Oh, and "Information Overload" by Caveman Shoestore. The CD goes into a repeating locked groove at the end for about 5 minutes.

Let me focus on the 60s / early 70s. Best album closer (and life closer in some cases):

1. Day in the Life, Beatles.
2. You Can't Always, Stones.
3. In My Hour of Darkness, Parsons.
4. Riders on the Storm, Doors.

In that order.

that be some classic rock

A bunch of lowbrow choices so far overlooked:

The End, The Doors - The Doors
Train In Vain, The Clash - London Calling
Casey Jones, The Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Truckin', The Grateful Dead - American Beauty
You Can't Always Get What You Want, The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
(not overlooked by the previous poster, but scandalously overlooked before that)
The Late Greats, Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
In The Pines, Nirvana - Unplugged
King Harvest Has Surely Come - The Band, The Band
Darkness At The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen etc. - Darkness On The Edge Of Town (I don't like Jungleland that much, but others would add that, too)
Purple Rain, Prince - Purple Rain (also not completely overlooked)
Gold Dust Woman, Fleetwood Mac - Rumors
Valentine, Old 97s - Fight Songs

Not to mention When The Levee Breaks, which as I think about it might be my #1 choice.

I Wish I Was Your Mother, Mott The Hoople

more classic rock on this thread than I expected

In the post-classic rock era, (1) with all the bonus tracks and crap, it's sometimes hard to tell what the end of an album is, and (2) there's a strong tendency to front-load all the good stuff.

Anyway, "best album closer of all time" is inherently a rockist question, so why not go whole hog?

You want a non-classic-rock answer? Fine. Here ya go.

Bill Dixon, "Octette #1" off Vade Mecum 2.

Greatest.

Ever.

Bernard is correct, the answer is "Slim Slow Slider".

I think a distinction has to be drawn between great songs that close an album and great album-closers. Hopefully, the ones I list will be mostly of the latter camp, although in almost every case the song is also the best on its parent album:

Bark Psychosis - Rose
The Beta Band - The Cow's Wrong
The Blood Brothers - The Shame
Blur - Essex Dogs
Blur - Resigned
Blur - Yuko & Hiro (all three Blur nominees are followed by a secret track and are therefore of dubious veracity)
Boards of Canada - Happy Cycling
The Chemical Brothers - The Private Psychedelic Reel
Comets On Fire - Blue Tomb
The Cooper Temple Clause - Written Apology
The Cooper Temple Clause - Murder Song
Crash Test Dummies - Swatting Flies (yes, this is, in context, a devastatingly good closer, not just a great song)
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)
Dark Star - The Sound Of Awake
Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
Engineers - One In Seven
Explosions In The Sky - Your Hand In Mine (hate them for their popularity or their supposed dullness, but this song is unstoppable)
Foetus - Kreibabe
GY!BE - Motherfucker = Redeemer (Part 2)
Grandaddy - So You'll Aim Toward The Sky
Hood - Diesel Pioneers
M83 - Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun
Mew - Louise Louisa
Mew - Comforting Sounds
Mogwai - lol can i has 16 minutes of yr precious time
NIN - Right Where It Belongs
Oceansize - Ornament/The Last Wrongs
ORBITAL - OUT THERE SOMEWHERE PT. 2 (WE HAVE A NEW WINNER, this song should close music)
Portishead - Glory Box
Porcupine Tree - Fadeaway
Primal Scream - Shoot Speed/Kill Light
Pulp - David's Last Summer (closes out a storyline from earlier on in the album as well as being Pulp's best song, and believe me that's stiff competition)
Pulp - Sunrise (probably their 2nd-best song)
Radiohead - er...er...errr.....Blow Out!
Slint - Good Morning Captain
Soundgarden - Like Suicide
Super Furry Animals - Mountain People (technooooo!!!!)
Super Furry Animals - Slow Life (er....technooooo!!!!)
Talk Talk - Runeii (my album favourite, no kidding, it finishes off their career on the surest and most contented of (piano) notes)
The Teardrop Explodes - ...And The Fighting Takes Over/The Great Dominions (I listen to them as one absolutely devastating 8-minute song)
The The - Lonely Planet
Ultrasound - Everything Picture (it's 21 minutes long ffs, how could I resist?)

XTC have their own section: Travels In Nihilon, Complicated Game, Books Are Burning, Snowman, Pale And Precious, Chalkhills And Children and The Wheel And The Maypole are all stunning.

"Miss Mabry" / Filles de Kilimanjaro
"Bandera" / Red Headed Stranger
"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (parts 6-9)/ Wish You Were Here
"Weathercock"/ Heavy Horses
"Morse Moose and the Grey Goose"/ London Town
"Tabula Rasa"/ Tabula Rasa
"Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" / The Visitors

(nuff best closers for tonite, for me)

First one that popped to mind:

God- Plastic Ono Band

don't know about all time, but last night "this train" closing bunny wailer's blackheart man could not be topped.

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.

'When The Levee Breaks' or 'I Am The Resurrection', surely? Or 'Lot 105'.

'A Certain Romance' is a classic of the genre too. I'm also a fan of understated endings, like 'Road Trippin'' or 'Gold Dust Woman'.

expressway to yr skull

la blues

afterhours

This is the best album Closer of all time:
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YCDS2WGML._AA240_.jpg

afterhours otm

"treatment bound"

"davy the fat boy"

junkyard

"louis jagger has the worst taste in the world" by muse

screwing yer courage

"ban ghost rider" by the doves

"Child in the Tree" - Young Gods
"The Days Were Golden" - Sunny Day Real Estate
"Faaip de Oiad" - Tool
"Chonkyfire" - Outkast

"best album closer of all time" is inherently a rockist question

waht

'soon' on loveless

(the only track on that album i like, if truth be told)

popists only listen to singles and they hang out on the "best fadeout of all time" threads

xpost

is it the act of appreciating the last track on an album that is inherently rockist, or the act of comparing it against other ones?

it was when you bought the album dude

Round up the usual suspects...

Spiritualized "200 Bars" / Lazer Guided Melodies
My Bloody Valentine "Soon" / Loveless
Bailter Space "Begin" / Robot World
The Church "Hotel Womb" / Starfish

The Cure - The Top

My god yes why didn't I think of this one.

Don't know if it's the best ever, but "Knights of Cydonia" on Muse's Black Holes and Revelations smokes everything else on that album, and I really liked that album.

more classic rock on this thread than I expected

-- Curt1s Stephens, Thursday, August 2, 2007 7:14 PM

hi dere "regrets" jay-z

Sonic Youth - Trilogy

(all three songs were a single track on original pressings of the album!)

the answer is Merry Go Bye Bye

truth.

The North Will Rise Again.

Uh.

"Alright" (Alien Lanes)

well, maybe not best of all time, but I've always been fond of it as an album closer.

Belle & Sebastian, 'Act Of The Apostle II'.

aeroplane over the sea

spiderland

NO NO NO NO--

**!!!"Fillmore Jive"/Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain!!!**

Not sure if you specifically meant songs designed to close the album, Curt1s, or best song that happens to be the last one on a given album, so I went with the former and came up with:

Ultravox "Just for a Moment"
Love "You Set the Scene"
Pulp "Bar Italia"

spiderland

^^^ I forgot this one!!

Portishead - Glory Box

Yes.

'Tower of Song' is one of the very best.