I've previously written articles about albums that open with their best song, as well as albums that close out pretty anti-climactically, so I thought it would only be fair to take a look at albums that have excellent closing tracks. Here are eight albums that saved their best songs for last.
1. The Clash - London Calling (1977)
"Train in Vain" is the most beautiful song the Clash ever wrote, and one of the most famous "hidden tracks" in rock history, but leaving the song off of London Calling's track listing wasn't entirely intentional. The band simply recorded the song at the very last minute, after the album sleeves had been designed, so there was no time to list it.
2. Fugazi - Repeater (1990)
If the Red Hot Chili Peppers were at all political and played hardcore instead of white-boy funk, they'd probably sound something like Fugazi, which is plainly obvious when listening to a song like "Shut the Door," the final and best song on the band's debut album Repeater.
3. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991)
Singling out one track from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless is a difficult task, since the whole album feels like one complete piece of music (Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield once said he doesn't actually know the names of the songs), but my favorite has to be the acid house flavored "Soon," the album's seven-minute closer. Brian Eno feels the same way, saying the song "set a new standard for pop."
4. Alice in Chains - Dirt (1992)
Though Alice in Chains' classic single "Would?" originally appeared on the soundtrack to the film Singles, it reappeared later that year as the final track on the band's second album Dirt. Though much poppier and less heavy than the album's other tracks, the song retains Dirt's atmospheric darkness, but does so in a more melodic, straightforward fashion.
5. Radiohead - Pablo Honey (1993)
Pablo Honey is by far the least-loved LP in Radiohead's discography, but it isn't without some incredible songs. There's the opener "You," and of course "Creep," but the album's strongest track is the one it closes out with, "Blow Out." While most of the other tracks are straightforward pop-rock songs, "Blow Out" is the only song that hints towards the subtler and atmospheric music Radiohead would be making in the future.
6. Morrissey - Vauxhall & I (1994)
After the glam rock punch of his third album Your Arsenal, Morrissey brings the mood down (as he does so often) for his follow-up, the bleak Vauxhall & I. Though released in 1994, the album often sounds as if it was thrown back in time from the mid-'00s, such as on the album's brilliant closer "Speedway," which sounds like a cross between Arcade Fire and the National.
7. Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
It'll be a long time before an artist will write as many brilliant songs at one time as Stuart Murdoch did for Belle & Sebastian's second album If You're Feeling Sinister. From the very beginning, it's plainly obvious that Murdoch has a remarkable grasp of melody and lyricism, and he saves his best song for last: the adolescent folk-pop tale "Judy and the Dream of Horses."
8. Grouper - The Man Who Died in His Boat (2013)
Though it's made up of songs played on acoustic guitar, Grouper's The Man Who Died in His Boat could be more accurately described as an ambient album instead of a folk album, with its muffled production and heavily treated vocals. However, the album's best and most comprehensible song is the brief closer "Living Room," a song so unbelievably beautiful that it makes you want to immediately play the entire album again.
