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[bob, just bob]

New York I Love You on LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver. The perfect ending to the album.

WORD!
also "Searching for a Former Clarity" by against me! is a great closer, one of my favorite songs by them

[fish across face]

^ Another classic example of bonus tracks getting in the way, as well.  Got the Japanese version of 'Sound of Silver' and it goes into a fairly uninspiring remix of North American Scum from there.

[parm]

That person who said "Fools Gold" was so nearly right. It's actually "I Am The Resurrection" from the original UK issuing of "The Stone Roses", including that epic 4-minute instrumental outro.

Also, "Comforting Sounds" by Mew is pretty fucking awesome, both as an album closer and gig-ender. One of those proper building-and-building-into-a-wall-of-white-noise type tracks.

[Will]

Jane Doe by Converge you guys.

Yep. Unbelievably epic closer. Also, "Hair Raising Accounts Of Restless Ghosts Pt. 2" on Modern Life Is War's Witness album.

EDIT-Converge fans seem to be few and far between on this forum...nice to meet you!

[spoon_of_grimbo]

if people are gonna start mentioning converge, then i'ma bitchslap y'all with this:

Botch - "Man the Ramparts"


oh sweet fuckedy-yes.

[Will]

if people are gonna start mentioning converge, then i'ma bitchslap y'all with this:

Botch - "Man the Ramparts"


oh sweet fuckedy-yes.

Also, if you're dyslexic, that song can easily become "Ram The Man-Parts."
Grimbo, can we turn this into a "See indie kids, hardcore is AWESOME" thread now?

[spoon_of_grimbo]

to be honest mate, i'm no more a fan of hardcore than i am of anything else - anything passionate and usually (but not necessarily) guitar/rock based is fine by me.  although i really don't get the hype around a lot of the electro-ey indie bands that seem to get wanked over furiously on this site.

[Will]

Oh, I'm not an excessive fan of hardcore myself, it's just the one style of music that seems to be largely ignored around here. I just started posting recently, after about a 2-year absence...I remember Sam was into some cool heavy shit, and there was one other dude a while ago whose name I can't remember...other than that, I've usually been alone when talking about bands like Botch or Converge (Tommy used to listen to them if I remember rightly, but they began to scare him)

[sean]

man, shit, i haven't listened to converge in ages. i should spin them again sometime.

[spoon_of_grimbo]

Oh, I'm not an excessive fan of hardcore myself, it's just the one style of music that seems to be largely ignored around here. I just started posting recently, after about a 2-year absence...I remember Sam was into some cool heavy shit, and there was one other dude a while ago whose name I can't remember...other than that, I've usually been alone when talking about bands like Botch or Converge (Tommy used to listen to them if I remember rightly, but they began to scare him)

dude, start a hardcore thread!  i've got a few albums i could recommend/upload/discuss, and i could do with a few recommendations etc.

[Thrillho]

dude, start a hardcore thread!  i've got a few albums i could recommend/upload/discuss, and i could do with a few recommendations etc.

I heartily endorse this recommendation.

The only Converge album I have is No Heroes and it's quite jaw-dropping.

[Will]

Okay, give me a few minutes to upload some shit to Mediaf!re and we'll do this!

EDIT-Done! Hope you dig it, guys...I'll keep 'em coming.

[fish across face]

Oh, I'm not an excessive fan of hardcore myself, it's just the one style of music that seems to be largely ignored around here.

Pffft...

[Waferman]

"Besides 'Bushels', which someone else has probably said by now, I like Swan Lake's 'Warlock Psychologist'." Commented Waferman.

[Nodaisho]

Sculptured's Embodiment is the Purest Form of Horror, off of Embodiment (tell me I'm not the only one that has heard that album?). It's the perfect end to the album, which was about the slow breakdown of the body leading to death, with mournful sampling from this short film, keyboards, and it all winding down to the end.

Overkill's Overkill saga (Overkill, Overkill II  (The Nightmare Continues), Overkill III (Under the Influence), E.vil N.ever D.ies, Overkill V... The Brand), from Feel the Fire, Taking Over, Under the Influence, The Years of Decay, and Immortalis, respectively. They all sort of lead into each other, but all stand alone well, and feel like they link together the albums.

In the Arms of God, from the album of the same title by Corrosion of Conformity, which is just an epic rocking conclusion to the album, with an awesome pounding riff. It is better when heard after Crown of Thorns, the short track that serves as somewhat of an intro, but this is just the one song, not best albums endings.

I couldn't find a youtube video for Under The Influence, sadly.

[Thrillho]

A recent addition to this thread... 'Crucifucks' by Gallows. The last four minutes of it is just a string coda, as if letting you mull over the album you just listened to. It's totally unexpected, yet oddly fitting.

[Tom]

"Besides 'Bushels', which someone else has probably said by now [...]

The final track of Tears of the Valedictorian is 'My Boats They Go'.

I'm jus' sayin'.

[Waferman]

Shh

[De_El]

Well as long as this thread has been bumped, why the fuck hasn't anybody said Expressway to Yr Skull, from EVOL? Cus seriously. Expressway to Yr Skull. It's important.

[Shadows Collide]

^ That's cause EVOL ends with Bubblegum, doesn't it? Which is also a great closer, so much fun.

Good closer: Some Girls are bigger than others (The Smiths) - A weird choice, with its absurd lyrics and so forth, but something about it completely works, especially the lead guitar harmonies at the end. Maybe it's cause its an unusual song that I keep coming back to.

[Tehz]

I know I'm like the fourth person to say it, but "Pitter Patter Goes My Heart" off of You Forgot it in People.


Ohhhhh man

[De_El]

Bubblegum

Bonus track obscuring original tracklisting. It does end it pretty okay, I suppose. But naw, man, it's "Expressway to Yr Skull."

[squawk]

Silkworm, "A Cockfight of Feelings", from Italian Platinum

[Johnny C]

Offhand, the answer is "Love is a Place." I'll have to think about others.

[beeseven]

They were mentioned earlier, but Okkervil River really know how to end an album. Their final songs are almost always perfect conclusions. The wall of trumpets at the end of Down the River of Golden Dreams, the "Over and over and over and over again. It's over!" of Black Sheep Boy Appendix, I could go on and on.

[2HourHiatus]

It's got to be "The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack" by Liars, from Drum's Not Dead.
The song brings you down after such an insane album.

Oh, and also it's one of the most beautiful songs. Ever.

[Damnable Fiend]

probably Sankaritarina by Moonsorrow, at least that's the one that comes to mind just now.

[Lolocaust]

all four broken social scene album's have amazing ending tracks.

also, "this ain't a survin movie" from minus the bear's menos el oso. and another favorite closer of mine is natural anthem from the postal service's "give up". it was one of few tracks on the album that showcased jimmy tamborello's talents more than ben gibbards, but was still a great closing track to a great album IMO.

[Llewellian]

My personal favorite is the Ending Track of the 1983 Concept Album from Pink Floyd "The Final Cut - Requiem for a post-war dream". The tracks name is "Two Suns in the sunset". I totally digg that saxophone in the last seconds...

Perfectly closes the whole album.

Same to the Soundtrack Album for the Comic Animation Film "When the Wind blows" done by David Bowie and Roger Waters. "Folded flags" is one perfect end. 

[Zingoleb]

I know that this is totally a dick move to pull, but I love how you keep capitalizing things in the sentence and then don't capitalize the titles. It's amusing.

Two Suns in the Sunset is a great ending to a terrible album, though.

[Patrick]

Off the top of my head, I'm going to go with 'The Diamond Sea' by Sonic Youth, from the Washing Machine album.

Gaz, I think you'd like my girlfriend. 'Cept she doesn't do the sex.

My entry is "You Could Die Or This Might End" by Ted Leo. Pretty guitar work, short, sweet, and would make an excellent set closer for any one of my future gigs, regardless of genre.

[Llewellian]

I know that this is totally a dick move to pull, but I love how you keep capitalizing things in the sentence and then don't capitalize the titles. It's amusing.

Two Suns in the Sunset is a great ending to a terrible album, though.

No problem about your move  - i'll don't know when i ever will learn to do THAT right... Seems like i always mix that up with the german language capitalizing rules  . Oh, and you are totally right about the overall album quality of "The final cut".

[Zingoleb]

English is a fairly odd language. I usually jump down people's throats who have it as their first language and should know better - in your case it makes a bit more sense.

More on topic:

Melanie's "Freedom Knows My Name" album is one of those where the bonus track just sort of muddles the original ending in a way that sort of irks me. Previously it would have ended with "Life Will Not Go Away," which is a vibrant, strong song, and then, instead, it ends with this somewhat boring song instead. Oh well.

[Babpacih]

ill second Sister Ray Good, Morning Captin, and especially A Day In The Life.
the hold steady ended their albums very awesomely. Killer Parties, How A Resurrection Really Feels, Southtown Girls, and Slapped Actress.
Lftr Pllr - Fiestas + Fiascos - The Flex and The Buff Result.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Salvation  /  Howl- The Line
Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited - Desolation Row
British Sea Power - Open Season - True Adventures
The Dresden Dolls ALWAYS ended strong. Truce, Sing, Boston
Drive By Truckers - The Dirty South - Goddamn Lonely Love
Eve6 always ended well, Small Town Trap, Girl Eyes, Arch Drive Goodbye
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals - Play Your Part pt 2
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless - Sooner
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps - Hey Hey, My My
Nirvana: Nevermind - Something In The Way  /  In Utero - All Apologies
Powerman 5000 - Tonight The Stars Revolt - Watch the Sky for Me
The Replacements:  Tim - Here Comes a Regular   /  Let It Be - Answering Machine
Tool - Undertow - Disgustipated

kay im done.

[Catacombs]

the hold steady ended their albums very awesomely. Killer Parties, How A Resurrection Really Feels, Southtown Girls, and Slapped Actress.

[Thrillho]

Oh, and you are totally right about the overall album quality of "The final cut".

I'm going to say fuck you guys on that one. I LOVE The Final Cut. I think 'The Gunner's Dream' is simply beautiful and heartbreaking, and once you get into it as a whole piece, like The Wall's little brother, it's great. IF you listen to the lyrics, too, they are magnificent. The minute observations on Southampton Dock, for example - 'Her handkerchief and her summer frock clings to her wet body in the rain.'

I can see why people are pissed at the lack of David Gilmour, but his few appearances are pretty brilliant.

Besides, as much as I love 'Two Suns,' I hate it because it didn't have Nick on drums. Roger replaced him for that one song, seeing as this was the height of his assholery.

[spoon_of_grimbo]

The Dresden Dolls ALWAYS ended strong. Truce, Sing, Boston
The Replacements:  Tim - Here Comes a Regular   /  Let It Be - Answering Machine
Tool - Undertow - Disgustipated

fucking YES!  especially the replacements. 

i was just listening to "yes virginia" actually, forgot how good the dolls were.  what's her solo album like?

[Damnable Fiend]

I thought her solo album was very good, much better than Yes, Virginia, which I thought was a bit of a letdown after their awesome first album.

Also, Neil Gaiman wrote a fake newspaper article type thing on the back of the cd, and is writing some sort of short story to accompany the cd.

*longass copy-paste from Gaiman's blog*

Right. So last August I went out to Boston for a few days to meet musical phenomenon Amanda Palmer. I'd loved her Dresden Dolls work, had been introduced to her in email by Jason Webley, had met her for an hour in March 2008 at the New York Comic Con just before my CBLDF event, where I introduced her to Bill Hader and Stan Lee, because they were int he green room too.

She had sent me her then-forthcoming CD WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER, which I'd loved, and I'd agreed to write the back cover "liner notes". And then Amanda sent me an email telling me that she had been taking photographs of herself dead for about 14 years, that the original idea had been to use some of those photos for the CD sleeve, but that would not happen, and she was making it into a book, and asking if I'd be interested in writing some words to go along with them.

She sent me many of the photos. I was intrigued. Nobody had ever asked me to do anything like that before, and the photos were small frozen stories, so I said yes. I went out to Boston in August and spent a few long-but-good days with Amanda and with photographer Kyle Cassidy, who is astonishing, with Amanda's then-boyfriend Michael and with Beth Hommel, her assistant. It was like a combination of mad improv theatre and instant film-making as we created scenarios and Kyle shot them. Mostly I was somewhere off to the side, scribbling in a notebook while everything happened around me, but occasionally I was dragooned into helping, or even being part of a shot. (There was one night where I staggered back and forth down an alley at 2.00am, with a dead Amanda over my shoulder, while nearby my friend Kira made imaginary cell-phone calls, and I waited for a squad car to pull up and find out what was going on. No squad cars turned up. People in Boston are very blase about dead people in alleys. The photo made it into the book, I think.)

I loved trying to turn the photos into stories. Some big stories, some very small stories, even a new-old fairy tale, each story odd, each story fun to write, and each story, invariably, fatal.

The most fun I think were the ones where the photo created more questions than it answered (a dead woman on some waste ground, her head crushed by a manual typewriter, apparently dropped from a very high place just left me going WHY? and produced one of my favourite stories as I got to explain...)

I've said it before on this blog: Writing is (like death) a lonely business, and it was enormously fun for me writing surrounded by creative people busy creating. I wrote several of the stories sitting in a corner of a room while Amanda practiced for her upcoming tour, tuning in and out of reality while songs were being played. It was fun.

There are about a dozen stories altogether, and a few shorter things by me in there. And there are lyrics by Amanda. And photographs. So many photographs.

Anyway, all the material was handed over to some designers, who it turned out hadn't designed books in a while and did a job so bad and so late that when they handed it back, Beth (Amanda's assistant) wound up taking the book and designing it and doing a terrific job, but having to start pretty much from scratch.

The book is being printed right now, in Hong Kong. This is a good thing. There will be 10,000 copies. People have asked if any of the stories will be reprinted in any short story collections in days to come -- possibly, but some of my favourites are dependent on the juxtapostion of the image and the words, and my short story collections tend to be almost a decade apart.

I should probably warn people about the nudity. There are lots of photos where Amanda is fully dressed, but she doesn't seem to have anything resembling a nudity taboo, and is fearless when it comes to getting the photo she wanted, so is fully or partly naked in some of the strangest places (my favourite nude Amanda shot, taken way before I got there, was her naked and apparently dead on a golf course, early one morning, as the golfers, unconcerned, played on and around her). It's definitely art, not porn, but there, such warnings are useful.

And there are many photographers in the book, but Kyle Cassidy is The Man.

So the book can now be ordered. It actually went live for orders a couple of days ago, and promptly was crashed by the number of people trying to order immediately. Seeing that this blog has the power to crush websites (what they've taken to calling a #NeilWebFail on Twitter) I wasn't going to link to it until the site was robust enough, but they've now beefed it up and added phone lines, so if you want to order a copy, you can.

It's a big, full colour, coffee table Who Killed Amanda Palmer Book. Copies arrive from the Hong Kong printer in July and will go straight out to people who have preordered them.

A few bookshops around the world that are friends of mine or friends of Amanda have enquired about selling the books. My understanding is that Amanda is waiting until the preorders are done, and everyone who has had a chance to preorder has ordered, before seeing a) if any are left and b) if any are left, how many of them will go to places like Chapters in Dublin or DreamHaven or Newbury Comics, or further afield than that.

I still wish I'd been able to come up with a story for the one of her dead among the wallabies, mind.

It was a fun project. I made some fine friends out of it, with Amanda foremost among them as we discovered that we agreed about pretty much everything to do with making art and the way you treat your fans and readers, and such (although not, oddly enough, about getting naked and pretending to be dead on golf courses, which is definitely Her Thing). I already knew she made good music, and I learned that she's really nice, and fearless, and very, very funny, and the sort of person who, at the end of an exhausting seven month world tour, would spend a month working for free with the kids at her old High School to help them put on a show.

And after all that preamble: you should pre-order the book from http://jsrdirect.com/bands/amandapalmer/wkap.html



Picture of Kyle eating Amanda's brains while I, er, hold a pen not very menacingly, above borrowed from Kyle's excellent Livejournal, where I also discovered there's a win a copy of the Who Killed Amanda Palmer book or something cooler competition on the go, and a photo of Chip Delany Where He Works.

[Zingoleb]

Oh, and you are totally right about the overall album quality of "The final cut".

I'm going to say fuck you guys on that one. I LOVE The Final Cut. I think 'The Gunner's Dream' is simply beautiful and heartbreaking, and once you get into it as a whole piece, like The Wall's little brother, it's great. IF you listen to the lyrics, too, they are magnificent. The minute observations on Southampton Dock, for example - 'Her handkerchief and her summer frock clings to her wet body in the rain.'

I can see why people are pissed at the lack of David Gilmour, but his few appearances are pretty brilliant.

Besides, as much as I love 'Two Suns,' I hate it because it didn't have Nick on drums. Roger replaced him for that one song, seeing as this was the height of his assholery.

Half of the songs were written to be on The Wall and they just didn't have room.

I'd say that a few songs really stand out to me (One of the Few; The Gunner's Dream; Not Now John; Two Suns in the Sunset) and the rest are musically blah. I'm missing one on that list but can't be damned to go back and see which.

Lyrically, it's quite a bit stronger, especially with my favourite being The Final Cut itself, since I've been in that position myself.

Oh, and Roger also claimed that Nick shouldn't get any writer's credit because "all he does is drum".

[Llewellian]

Like Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said "De gustibus non est disputandum". Personal taste is undiscussable. Everybody has a totally valid point here.

If everyone would love complete albums, there would be no selling of singles.

My personal opinion is that there is not one Pink Floyd Album where i really love "ALL" songs. Sure, especially in such concept albums like the "Final cut" or "The Wall", every song has its place and is maybe "needed" for the whole concept, but.. well. Sometimes i feel that there would be no loss if you cut out one or two songs that really take the overall "quality" down. But - and that brings the loop back to this discussion thread: "Two suns in the sunset" is one perfect example for a good "Song that ends an album".

And while i am here - what do you think about Peter Gabriel? I do think that from his latest concept album "OvO" the Song "Make tomorrow" is too a wonderful example for songs that end an album perfectly. A little bit like good sex. Takes the tension from the whole album, builds it further up until Timecode Min 7.00 - BAM, that 3 Minute Drum-set kicks in like an Orgasm an then it goes into the Afterglow. Shivers.

[Catacombs]

My personal opinion is that there is not one Pink Floyd Album where i really love "ALL" songs.

Dark Side of the Moon?  Really?  That's the one Floyd album where I never mind listening to all the songs, and not even in the complete album sense.  For example, I love all of Wish You Were Here, but "Welcome to the Machine" really sucks, so I always skip it if I'm listening to the album.  But there's nothing to skip on DSotM.

[Thrillho]

I always skip all of DSOTM myself. Although I hate 'On The Run' anyway. It's cool and ahead of its time and all, but I never fucking bother listening to it. As for Pink Floyd albums where I love every song... WYWH and Animals both fill that criteria for me.

[Patrick]

Two Suns in the Sunset

Song made me cry.

[Llewellian]

Two Suns in the Sunset

Song made me cry.

In a good or in a bad way?

[Thrillho]

I hope in a good way, because it's awesome and Pat is pretty great too so if they disagree I MIGHT DIE A LITTLE.

[Patrick]

I have like 5 Floyd albums how could it be anything but 'in a good way'

[Zingoleb]

I have everything from Meddle onwards. Used to be Flink Poyd obsessed.

I always skip all of DSOTM myself. Although I hate 'On The Run' anyway. It's cool and ahead of its time and all, but I never fucking bother listening to it. As for Pink Floyd albums where I love every song... WYWH and Animals both fill that criteria for me.

This. I don't *hate* On the Run, I just don't care for it.