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

Slint 'Good Morning Captain' is an obvious shout to me but if ppl are keen to try and overlook bands with less than like 90 minutes of musical output then I understand

Japan - Cantonese Boy (last song on Tin Drum). Although this is basically the thread of bands who split up or died before they started to suck, no?

or pulled one last rabbit out of the hat..

Argument is one of Fugazi's best song ever and so(unless anybody comes up with anything better) it's miles ahead of the field here.

Richard & Linda Thompson "Wall of Death"

"Two Suns In The Sunset" from The Final Cut, since the post-Waters albums don't count. A melancholy, eerie and desolate valediction.

Slint 'Good Morning Captain' is an obvious shout to me but if ppl are keen to try and overlook bands with less than like 90 minutes of musical output then I understand

― DJ AMencap (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, September 2, 2009 2:17 PM (1 hour ago)

Galaxie 500's "King of Spain, Part Two" always seemed a pretty fitting end point to me.

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."

^^^this song is brilliant, yes, and like The Beta Band without Steve Mason (renamed Aliens), Ultravox! should have done more than simply ditch the exclamation point.

jesus christ how has no one mentioned aaliyah??

the final track of the standard version of aaliyah, "what if" is easily eligible for this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_4D2ox-4Kk

but taking the final track of the international version, "try again", and there is no contest whatsoever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEF_-IcnQC4

RIP babygirl

My cd of Aaliyah ends with "Messed Up" which isn't as great a career closer as "What If".

Came here to say The Dismemberment Plan - Ellen And Ben, but some dude beat me to it.

Jawbox - Absenter (not counting the Tori Amos cover which follows it as a ghost track)

Bedhead - "The Present"
12 Rods - "Telephone Holiday"
The Olivia Tremor Control - "Hilltop Procession"

hahaha hilltop procession came on my ipod shuffle just earlier and it was great and it never occurred to me that it was a farewell track

Yeah 'Try Again' was the first thing that occurred to me. Also 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' from Nirvana Unplugged.

archers of loaf, white trash heroes. bit of a departure but i'm still v fond of it.

Jellyfish--"Brighter Day" pretty much sums up the band, and their kitchen sink.

Galaxie 500's "King of Spain, Part Two" always seemed a pretty fitting end point to me.

― Bill A,

just what i came to post

"Build", The Housemartins.

(tho they had a final, non-album single "There Is Always Something There To Remind Me")

The actual career closer by The Specials (not counting Special AKA, which was something else) was "Ghost Town", which is probably the best swansong ever.

sex pistols "emi"

"Powerless" by Attacco Decente.

The actual career closer by The Specials (not counting Special AKA, which was something else) was "Ghost Town", which is probably the best swansong ever.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Friday, 4 September 2009 18:01 (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Except it would be "Friday night, saturday morning", which is alright but..

Her Majesty

riders on the storm

xpost Yes "Tea In The Sahara" closes Synchronicity. a good choice..

and yes "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"

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

Radiohead - Videotape

Chavez - "You Must Be Stopped"

"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.

The Beatles closed with "You know my name (look up the number)" : Discuss...

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.

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.

Who cares if it wasn't on one of their albums...

refused - the apollo programme was a hoax
nick drake - from the morning

Manic Street Preachers (version I) - 'PCP'

Eleanor Rigby - up the junction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4A_p43aFFc

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.

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.

T. Rex - Teen Riot Structure

The Beach Boys - "Summer's Gone". A perfect career-closer.

The Who, "Tea and Theatre"

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.

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)

Queen - "The Show Must Go On". (And didn't it just.)

REM - "Electrolite"

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.