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

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