Suggested already: Pulp - Sunrise, Talk Talk - Runeii
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 18:54 (3 years ago) Permalink
XTC - The Wheel And The Maypole is bloody good iirc
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 18:56 (3 years ago) Permalink
"The Future is Now" - the Boo Radleys
― Bee OK, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 18:56 (3 years ago) Permalink
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)
― StanM, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 18:59 (3 years ago) Permalink
thread needs Southall's presence, especially with regard The Beta Band - Pure For, a song I know he has a thing for
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:00 (3 years ago) Permalink
Joy Division - "Decades"
― kshighway, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:01 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:03 (3 years ago) Permalink
Juno "Killing It In a Quiet Way"Fugazi "The Argument"
― Simon H., Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:03 (3 years ago) Permalink
Wrecking Ball by Gillian Welch, if she's finished with recording.
The Argument is a fucking awesome shout.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:05 (3 years ago) Permalink
Blur "Battery In Your Leg"Sleater-Kinney "Let's Call It Love / Night Light" (cheating, slightly)
― Simon H., Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:06 (3 years ago) Permalink
ABBA "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room"
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:06 (3 years ago) Permalink
Minor Thread - "Salad Days"
― i'm beasting off the riesling (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:06 (3 years ago) Permalink
The Triffids - Fairytale Love
― StanM, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:07 (3 years ago) Permalink
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return). Kind of.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:07 (3 years ago) Permalink
Uncle Tupelo - "Steal the Crumbs"
― Houston (Euler), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:07 (3 years ago) Permalink
Nocturn / Aerial is an awesome 1-2 killer closer punch, assuming Kate Bush sinks back into an eternity of doing the dishes naked.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:08 (3 years ago) Permalink
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
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:08 (3 years ago) Permalink
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"
― kshighway, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:09 (3 years ago) Permalink
Catch My Drift by AR Kane.
Soon by MBV?!
Runeii does have that sense of finality, I guess.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:09 (3 years ago) Permalink
ABBA's "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" is to me the perfect career closer, nostalgic, elegiac, morbid, final . . .
Long awaited darkness fallsCasting shadows on the wallsIn the twilight hour I am aloneSitting near the fireplace, dying embers warm my faceIn this peaceful solitudeAll the outside world subduedEverything comes back to me againIn the gloomLike an angel passing through my room
Half awake and half in dreamsSeeing long forgotten scenesSo the present runs into the pastNow and then become entwined, playing games within my mindLike the embers as they dieLove was one prolonged good-byeAnd it all comes back to me tonightIn the gloomLike an angel passing through my room
I close my eyesAnd my twilight images go byAll too soonLike an angel passing through my room
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:10 (3 years ago) Permalink
All Apologies! Where Did You Sleep Last Night!
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:10 (3 years ago) Permalink
a second for : Nirvana - All ApologiesOh! Sweet Nuthin' - Velvet Underground (Squeeze doesn't count)
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:10 (3 years ago) Permalink
How many people will rep for Prince of Mars if I mention it? Ned?
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:11 (3 years ago) Permalink
Crime & the City Solution - The Last Dictator (part 1-4)
― StanM, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:11 (3 years ago) Permalink
Unintended ones that have a stroke of irony in their accidental closingness rule this thread.
Yawning At Comets.
Into The Storm.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:12 (3 years ago) Permalink
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
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:13 (3 years ago) Permalink
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
― sonderangerbot, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:13 (3 years ago) Permalink
Big Black - Bombastic Intro
(lol)
― StanM, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:14 (3 years ago) Permalink
yeah, I'm not a huge fan otherwise but All Apologies is a pretty tremendous career ender.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:14 (3 years ago) Permalink
In My Hour of Darkness - Gram Parsons
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:15 (3 years ago) Permalink
Gospel Plow.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:16 (3 years ago) Permalink
I suspect it's not unintended but Camper Van Beethoven's "Come On Darkness" hits the morbid spot.
― Houston (Euler), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:16 (3 years ago) Permalink
although fuck they had a reunion (which shouldn't count I don't think but oh well)
― Houston (Euler), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:17 (3 years ago) Permalink
Metallica - "Dyers Eve"
― kshighway, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:17 (3 years ago) Permalink
One thing I am learning from my trawl through my music collection,
is that bands have this remarkably tenacious ability not to break up
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:18 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― StanM, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:18 (3 years ago) Permalink
yeah I have heard that Coil song and it seems pretty appropriate
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:20 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― Houston (Euler), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:20 (3 years ago) Permalink
Love Spreads. Best comeback single and best closer.
― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:21 (3 years ago) Permalink
you've forgotten THE FOZ, Nick XD
― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:22 (3 years ago) Permalink
(which is a WAY more appropriate career-closer for that shambles of a band)
Arab Strap - There is No Ending
― The Devil's Avocado (Gukbe), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:24 (3 years ago) Permalink
The Dismemberment Plan - "Ellen And Ben"
― some dude, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:25 (3 years ago) Permalink
Mr. Bungle - "Goodbye Sober Day"
― A DOG, A BARREL... RIDICULOUS! (jjjusten), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:26 (3 years ago) Permalink
Dead Boys "Ain't it Fun"
― bendy, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
In the unintended irony category, but also a candidate for best more generally, Roy Orbison's "Careless Heart".
― Houston (Euler), Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:28 (3 years ago) Permalink
I thought of "Ellen and Ben" but it's not exactly a career highlight IMO. there is something weirdly poignant about it, though.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:28 (3 years ago) Permalink
GBV- Huffman Prairie Flying Field
Anthemic as hell, flight imagery about Dayton, a real feel of finality to it...
― ColinO, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
Her Majesty
― billstevejim, Saturday, 5 September 2009 00:56 (3 years ago) Permalink
riders on the storm
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 5 September 2009 00:57 (3 years ago) Permalink
xpost Yes "Tea In The Sahara" closes Synchronicity. a good choice..
― billstevejim, Saturday, 5 September 2009 00:57 (3 years ago) Permalink
and yes "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
― billstevejim, Saturday, 5 September 2009 00:58 (3 years ago) Permalink
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
― killah priest, Sunday, 6 September 2009 00:15 (3 years ago) Permalink
Radiohead - Videotape
― David Katz (davek_00), Sunday, 6 September 2009 00:26 (3 years ago) Permalink
Chavez - "You Must Be Stopped"
― monosyllabic, Sunday, 6 September 2009 01:19 (3 years ago) Permalink
"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.
― Fruitless and Pansy Free (Dr. Joseph A. Ofalt), Sunday, 6 September 2009 02:29 (3 years ago) Permalink
The Beatles closed with "You know my name (look up the number)" : Discuss...
― Mark G, Sunday, 6 September 2009 23:22 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― clemenza, Monday, 7 September 2009 02:17 (3 years ago) Permalink
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.
― dlp9001, Monday, 7 September 2009 02:37 (3 years ago) Permalink
Who cares if it wasn't on one of their albums...
― dlp9001, Monday, 7 September 2009 02:40 (3 years ago) Permalink
refused - the apollo programme was a hoaxnick drake - from the morning
― Charlie Howard, Monday, 7 September 2009 12:44 (3 years ago) Permalink
Manic Street Preachers (version I) - 'PCP'
― Ismael Klata, Monday, 7 September 2009 12:51 (3 years ago) Permalink
Eleanor Rigby - up the junction
― meisenfek, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 10:07 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 10:15 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― mark e, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 10:19 (6 months ago) Permalink
T. Rex - Teen Riot Structure
― timellison, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 13:53 (6 months ago) Permalink
The Beach Boys - "Summer's Gone". A perfect career-closer.
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 13:58 (6 months ago) Permalink
The Who, "Tea and Theatre"
― 5-Hour Enmity (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 14:01 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― grandavis, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 14:09 (6 months ago) Permalink
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)
― frogbs, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 14:24 (6 months ago) Permalink
Queen - "The Show Must Go On". (And didn't it just.)
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 14:24 (6 months ago) Permalink
REM - "Electrolite"
― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 14:33 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 15:04 (6 months ago) Permalink
Actually maybe it was only a 7-year career. But still.
― hurricane weather (forapper), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 15:06 (6 months ago) Permalink
― 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
― push iatee (some dude), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 15:07 (6 months ago) Permalink
So is "All Apologies", btw
― Mark G, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 15:14 (6 months ago) Permalink
Simon & Garfunkel - "Song For The Asking"
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 15:18 (6 months ago) Permalink
from the morning
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 15:31 (6 months ago) Permalink
Pavement - Carrot Rope
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 16:24 (6 months ago) Permalink
Also I'm not a huge fan of Talking Heads' Naked but 'Cool Water' is a great closing track.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 16:28 (6 months ago) Permalink
I've always loved the way "The Royal Scam" closes the album of the same name.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 31 October 2012 16:29 (6 months ago) Permalink
Does "Golden slumbers" / "Carry that weight" / "The end" count or does "Her majesty" get in the way of that argument?
― Rob M Revisited, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 16:32 (6 months ago) Permalink
Bugger, just seen it mentioned already.
How about "You can live at home"? Or has that been done as well?
― Rob M Revisited, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 16:36 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― C-3PO Sharkey (Phil D.), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 16:45 (6 months ago) Permalink
Metallica "Dyers Eve"
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 20:34 (6 months ago) Permalink
GBV had a perfect one until they went and made more records
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 20:40 (6 months ago) Permalink
^^^Yes x1000
― trebek sajak iii (cwkiii), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 20:46 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― Oblique Strategies, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 20:47 (6 months ago) Permalink
women - eyesore
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 31 October 2012 21:47 (6 months ago) Permalink
― Siegbran, Wednesday, October 31, 2012 8:34 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
HahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAhahahahha!
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Wednesday, 31 October 2012 22:50 (6 months ago) Permalink
David Bowie's "Bring Me The Disco King" makes for a suitably elegiac career-closer.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 18:44 (6 months ago) Permalink
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.
― grandavis, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 19:36 (6 months ago) Permalink
good call.
― mark e, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 20:10 (6 months ago) Permalink
though i still live in hope that its not the end ..
― mark e, Tuesday, 6 November 2012 20:11 (6 months ago) Permalink
Bump.
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, 2 February 2013 13:34 (3 months ago) Permalink
Some prescience there from mark e.
What insanalist suggested Videotape? Idiocy.
― they all are afflicted with a sickness of existence (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 12:08 (1 month ago) Permalink
My chemical romance's "vampire money" now a good answer to this
― some dude, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 14:13 (1 month ago) Permalink