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

In My Hour of Darkness - Gram Parsons

Gospel Plow.

I suspect it's not unintended but Camper Van Beethoven's "Come On Darkness" hits the morbid spot.

although fuck they had a reunion (which shouldn't count I don't think but oh well)

Metallica - "Dyers Eve"

One thing I am learning from my trawl through my music collection,

is that bands have this remarkably tenacious ability not to break up

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.

yeah I have heard that Coil song and it seems pretty appropriate

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.

Love Spreads. Best comeback single and best closer.

you've forgotten THE FOZ, Nick XD

(which is a WAY more appropriate career-closer for that shambles of a band)

Arab Strap - There is No Ending

The Dismemberment Plan - "Ellen And Ben"

Mr. Bungle - "Goodbye Sober Day"

Dead Boys "Ain't it Fun"

In the unintended irony category, but also a candidate for best more generally, Roy Orbison's "Careless Heart".

I thought of "Ellen and Ben" but it's not exactly a career highlight IMO. there is something weirdly poignant about it, though.

GBV- Huffman Prairie Flying Field

Anthemic as hell, flight imagery about Dayton, a real feel of finality to it...

I had a feeling Goodbye Sober Day would make an appearance. Great song, but now we're getting towards the stage where almost every career closer of a now-defunct band I like is getting nominated...

Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

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.

additionally there were different tracklistings when the original LP version was first released. i think the original US (and recently reissued version) end with "Thank You Friends" which is a far weaker closing track when compared to "Take Care"

"skeleton makes good" -- captain beefheart. he sure as hell did and not many people get to walk away on top of their game like that

has anyone said "her majesty" yet? if not, that.

I had a feeling Goodbye Sober Day would make an appearance. Great song, but now we're getting towards the stage where almost every career closer of a now-defunct band I like is getting nominated...

― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters)

nah i really thought about this for about an hour and its my top choice, way above all the other alternatives

"Underwater Moonlight" - The Soft Boys. All the random crap and the twenty-years-on reunion never happened.

almost every career closer of a now-defunct band I like is getting nominated...

I don't expect anyone is going to nominate Hüsker Dü's You Can Live at Home Now, or Cop Shoot Cop's Money Drunk (if only they'd ended Release with The Divorce (and not have it fadeout) )

From the Morning by Nick Drake works real well...

Or how about A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free by Elliott Smith (Assembled and released after he died but I count it as his final album)

i would also think neutral milk hotel's "two headed boy, pt. 2" would get consideration

on a slightly different tip, but just about perfect:

Jawbox "Apollo Amateur" (last song they recorded)

Metallica - "Dyers Eve"

― kshighway, Wednesday, September 2, 2009 3:17 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol good one, never figured you for a Metallica purist

Tip for bands watching this thread: make sure every album ends in something memorable. You never know you might split up afterwards or worse, like Morphine's Mark Sandman :-(

hahahaha yeah that (C$C) was one of the ones i was hoping to be wrong about! i even checked the track listing xxxxpost

Was just gonna say Two Headed Boy Pt.2 is a pretty good career closer

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also if by career closer it's implied that posthumous albums released to profit from an artist's passing don't count..

the notorious b.i.g.'s "you're nobody (till somebody kills you)" is quite the closing statement

"I don't expect anyone is going to nominate Hüsker Dü's You Can Live at Home Now..."

that's a good one

The Smiths: I Won't Share You. A change in pace and direction, and very moving.

Big Black "He's A Whore" on the CD version anyway.

Is The End by The Beatles too obvious to mention? Last song all four ever recorded together, last song on Abbey Road...

Is The End by The Beatles too obvious to mention?

Her Majesty comes after it.

How about Riders On The Storm: The Doors

Zombies "Time of the Season"

If only Police had ended "Synchronicity" with "Tea In The Sahara" or "Wrapped Around Your Finger", and not the forgettable "Murder By Numbers".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg8iBfyxy8o

Does "Don't Hang Up" by 10cc count? It was last on the last album by the classic four piece lineup.

No. Sorry.

The release of The Embassy Tapes ruins mine (which would have been "President of Vice" by Nation of Ulysses, a song that would give me suicide fantasies when I was fifteen)

The Specials' "Enjoy yourself (reprise)", for the levels of irony...

"Surrogate Drone" by Swans off of Soundtracks for the Blind fits the bill, although Gira has recently stated he may record as Swans again.

"I'm Not The Man" by 10,000 Maniacs off of Our Time In Eden doesn't really cut it. Should have been "Stockton Gala Days" instead.

The best one I can think of is "Just For A Moment" by Ultravox off of Systems of Romance. Their last album with John Foxx, so the end of one version of the group at least. An utterly chilling song, wonderfully described by one critic (after the fact) as "making Thom Yorke's bedroom angst anthems sound like a night in the pub with Dodgy."

If only Police had ended "Synchronicity" with "Tea In The Sahara"

Geir, they did! On the original LP release anyway. 'Murder By Numbers' was added on the cassette or something I think, but it wasn't on the album proper.

I was going to say something about this but I was afraid my memory was tricking me.

Zep “I’m gonna crawl”
“If I dream too much tonight / somebody please bring me down”

xp XTC did, "Spiral"/"Say It" was recorded in 2002 so a couple years after their last album came out

The Police recorded new versions of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" in '86 and they were so notoriously terrible the latter was never officially released

I still don’t think Copeland even played on those 2 recordings

he plays the Fairlight since I think he physically couldn't drum due to a broken collarbone. does that count??

I think I mentioned this on another thread already but 1970s easy listening star Demis Roussos bookended his career with a nine minute prog epic named “Who Gives A Fuck”.

“third world man” on the original SD run works

The price you pay an absolutely devastating way to cap a career. Imago otm, my favourite Low track most days as well

One of the few tracks that will give me shivers up and down from merely singing the verses in my head

My internalisation of mimi's harmony in particular. Goes beyond notes. The interplay of their vocals on that track is the purest pathos music has to offer I

most of the suggestions upthread weren't even the last song from the last album in the end

For instance:

Blur "Battery In Your Leg"
ABBA "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room"
Nocturn / Aerial
Soon by MBV?!
The Who, "Tea and Theatre"

Will anyone nominate subsequent final tracks "The Heights"/"The Swan", "Ode to Freedom", "Among Angels", "Wonder 2" or "She Rocked My World" for this honour?

"She rocked my world" ??

Really?

The deluxe edition concludes with a song called "Danny and My Ponies" if that's any more promising.

Gentle Giant “That’s…All…There…Is”

I nominate Can's "In the Distance Lies the Future" from Rite Time

but their song on the Wenders soundtrack, Last Night Sleep, was recorded in 1991. wonder if any other bands made a last album, then followed with one last single
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The Jam made a last album, then followed with one last single

Yeah, so "Shopping" would be their career closer.

In which case "You know my name (look up the number)" would do the similar job for The Beatles

wiki say: There was a further reunion in 1991 by Karoli, Liebezeit, Mooney and Schmidt to record a track for the Wim Wenders film Until the End of the World

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