Closers

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What are the best last songs on an album?Some bands do like to save the best for last...

― Damian, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There was a time in my life when this was the easiest answer in the world. "Expressway to Yr Skull" off of EVOL was the best album closer. Unfortunately, I no longer have my lock groove vinyl copy and the CD version appends a terrible cover of Kim Fowley's "Bubblegum" so the whole experience has been poisoned. And that stupid "Eliminator" ruins Sonic Youth's other near-classic album. I'm gonna say Can's "Bel Air" off of Future Days is my fave last song for the moment. "Waterloo Sunset" is pretty fabulous, too. "Soon" off of Loveless although I still think it's somewhat out of place on the album. "Squadron" ends the No-U Turn comp in a stunning fashion.

― Alex in SF, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bel Air...nice.My favourites include The Tourist,Kyuss' Spaceship Landing,Ananas Symphonie off Ralf And Florian,King Crimson's Starless,Suede's Still Life...oo,there are lots.I seem to like those closing tracks that go for the repetitive mantra thang (Lock-Groove Lullaby,Here Come The Warm Jets,Ohm Sweet Ohm) and the ones that could conceivably go on for ages and ages after they fade out (which reminds me - Echoes,in addition to aforementioned Kyuss and R&F).

― Damian, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love "lola" on the raincoats s/t LP better than the original and makes me want to relisten to the entire record

― ddd, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Shoot Speed / Kill Light off XTRMNTR by Primal Scream. I Am The Resurrection by The Stone Roses. Soon off Loveless. Inner City Blues (Make Me wanna Holler) from What's Going On by Marvin. Argument by Fugazi.

There's loads more that I could think of if I spent five minutes going along the shelves, these are just the first that spring to mind.

― Nick Southall, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Album closers... Kraftwerk have made a speciality of them, just about all their LP closers have been lovely, except for "Electric cafe". "I can see it but I can't feel it" is a marvellous langorous way to end "Isn't anything", far better than "Soon" ending "Loveless". I once made a great tape of one side of album openers and one side of album closers - wish I still had it 'cos I'd probably put all of them on here. Er, "Taking tiger mountain" by Eno... "My country" by Durutti Column... oh hell, I wish I could remember more of them. It's easier to pick bad LP closers...

― Rob M, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Tomorrow Never Knows; After Hours by The Velvets.

― johnathan, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Department of the bleeding obvious: A Day in the Life. That's emphatic closing for you.

― OleM, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Brazen Hussies, "Decathexis"

― dave q, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"The Train" from Frank Sinatra's "Watertown" LP.

― harvey williams, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"My Weakness" on Moby's PLAY has a nice finality to it.

"Las Vegas Basement" on Julian Cope's PEGGY SUICIDE.

"Do You Love Me?" on Kiss's DESTROYER

― Alex in NYC, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'primal' on Just for a Day,

'smoking her wings' on the Bats' The Law of Things

and either 'farewell to forever' or 'to keep your heart whole' by Trembling Blue Stars

― keith, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

'Good Morning Captain' on Slint's 'Spiderland'

'Listerine on Kristin Hersh's 'Sunny Border Blue' and the title track on the Auteurs' 'After Murder Park' whilst not the best songs on those albums, do close them well.

When musicians put so much effort in to starting a song/album well, it's a shame that not so many devote the same to ending them.

― Ben Squircle, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've been mulling album ending songs for a while, and how some of my favorite artists rarely don't finish on a high note. Which got me to thinking that what I usually expect/want from the closing track is an exclamation point of sorts. My biggest complaint is Sleater Kinney's Dig Me Out: track 3/"Turn it on" has all the markings of a closer -- desparately drawn out vocals, dramatic hooks, etc., which would seem to be a perfect climax to the album. Instead, they end with a more somber, reflective song. Bit of a downer. It's not a trajectory that I find immediately pleasing: starting off hot and loud to heavy somberness. Similar complaint about the proper Plastikman albums -- always putting the beatiest, detroitiest as the _second_-to-last, and ending with an ambient chillout track. Lamb's self-titled, too: "Gorecki" the second to last is the dramatic, emotional pinnacle of the album about found love, giving way to "Feela," a minimalist reconsideration of that love, which turns out not meant to be.

What I take to be the common thread in these comedown-style album closers is that they go for a descent back down into reality, whereas I innately prefer ones that serve as a launching pad past the end of the album, preserving the mood (the illusion thereof?) that's been built up over the rest of the album and spilling out into the regular world for a bit; these aren't just really good songs that happened to be at the finale. I suppose the main categories are those that assert their own realities, and those that efface their realities to remind the listener of the "real world." (A vast simplification, I admit. One complication is an album with a nonmusical outro, like Orbital's Brown Album. Would you count "Input Out" as the ender, or does would you say that "Halcyon+On+On" is it? And those with bonus/hidden tracks/reprises -- e.g. "Group 4", or (Exchange) is the end of Mezzanine -- at the end?)

Anyway: Autechre - 444, vletrmx21, Drane2; Cocteau Twins - Donimo; Mogwai Fear Satan (imagine "Like Herod," an epic of a different sort, ending Young Team); Portishead - Western Eyes; Boards of Canada - Everything You Do Is A Balloon.

― Lee, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Joy Division, "Decade" (duh)

― Curt, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Blue Line Swinger" by Yo La Tengo on thee end of Electr-o-pura.

"Dark" by Low on The Curtain Hits The Cast

― electric sound of jim, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

curt, decades was a good closer on Closer(yeah, bad pun, I know...) but I Remember Nothing from Unknown Pleasures beats it by miles.

― mt, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and for the most OBVIOUS album closer of all time:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE...

Eclipse from Dark Side Of The Moon.

there, I have just shedded the very last bit of my ILM cred.

― m, Sunday, 24 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Back and Forth", The Dismemberment Plan "Scientist Studies", Death Cab For Cutie Seconded: "Good Morning Captain", Slint "Into Deep Neutral", Moonshake "It's All Here In Brownsville", The Mountain Goats "Procession", Candy Machine "Radio City Suicide", Grifters

― doug, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Wire's first two slam shut nicely with "12XU" and "Too Late," respectively. The Magnetic Fields get credit for bypassing the more obviously final "Z Train" on _69 Love Songs_ for "Zebra," which is a flourish if I've ever heard one. I can't imagine any place but last on _Sebadoh III_ that "As The World Dies, The Eyes of God Grow Bigger" would fit. "Tomorrow Never Knows" isn't bad either.

But I have to give the crown to Thinking Fellers Union Local 282's _Strangers From The Universe_ for "Noble Experiment."

― Douglas, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Neat question - I've actually thought about this one before, although I've forgotten my choices... does anyone else think that the Basement Jaxx really must start learning how to end their albums properly? I seem to only make it through 3/4 of both of them, although those 3/4s are awfully fucking good.

― Clarke B., Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like ending OK Computer with The Tourist

― Ron Hudson, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

mr bungle. they end EVERY album with THE best NOTE.

― chaki, Monday, 25 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

God Lives Through

― Aerosol, Saturday, 21 January 2012 02:28 (thirteen years ago)

When the Marked Men's Ghosts reaches it's title track after ten other songs, it seems like the greatest, fastest little punk-pop song ever. It ends, then things lock in for a whole damn FOUR more songs that are even better and somehow, magically faster. After dozens of listens in the last two years, it still disorients me. So, "Blew My Head". The Escher staircase of rock.

― bendy, Saturday, 21 January 2012 05:44 (thirteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Bit of a side project some of you might appreciate, I’ve been running a reader poll over on my Substack, The Run-Out Grooves, to find the greatest album closing track of the 1990s.

We’re at 170 ballots now, covering everything from the expected (Glory Box, Street Spirit, All Apologies) to the gloriously unexpected (Pigeons In Flight, Sproston Green).

It’s genuinely close at the top, a single Top-5 vote could flip the result, and I’ll be publishing a full write-up and countdown once it closes.

If you’ve got a soft spot for endings, or just fancy joining a good-natured canon argument, the link’s here:

https://therunoutgrooves.substack.com/p/a-photo-finish-for-the-greatest-album

― Mitchell Stirling, Saturday, 11 October 2025 16:14 (two months ago)

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