24 Jan 2008 by Chris     No Comments    Posted under: Entertainment

First Amongst Last Tracks

So Rock Dad alerted me to the Guardian Unlimited debate on the best final tracks on albums. And once you’ve started thinking about that sort of thing, you have to see it through. Obviously.

Now, we’re not talking here about looking at the list of your 100 favourite songs of all time and marking which ones happen to be the final track on an album. That would be silly. We’re talking about the tracks which bring an album to a fitting climax, leaving you thinking “Wow!” and perhaps feeling much better disposed towards the body of work than you might have done otherwise. Perhaps they might inspire you to simply let the album play through for a second (or third, or tenth) time when you really should have got on with something else. So many albums start off with the best songs and gradually tail off, after all. And nowadays lots of them “finish”, only to reprise with umpteen “bonus” tracks of questionable quality. So I’m disregarding that sort of rubbish.

I’m also disallowing albums where the final track is the bulk of the album, and the rest is filler (I’m thinking mainly of prog rock stuff where side 2 of the vinyl version is a single epic).

OK then, here we go. Fifteen tracks which lifted an album right through the playoffs into an automatic promotion spot. In alphabetical band order only!

• A Day In The Life – The Beatles (from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band)
• Play Dead – Björk (from Debut) Play
• Jungleland – Bruce Springsteen (from Born To Run) Play
• Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia) – The Flaming Lips (from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots) Play
• Afterglow – Genesis (from Wind and Wuthering) Play
• Tour Jacket With Detachable Sleeves – Half Man Half Biscuit (from Some Call It Godcore)
• Tenement Symphony VI: My Hand Over My Heart – Marc Almond (from Tenement Symphony)
• Knights Of Cydonia – Muse (from Black Holes and Revelations) Play
• Champagne Supernova – Oasis (from What’s The Story) Morning Glory?) Play
• Tomorrow Never Knows – Phil Collins (from Face Value) Play
• Brain Damage/Eclipse – Pink Floyd (from Dark Side Of The Moon)
• I Hope You Meet Again – The Saw Doctors (from If This Is Rock And Roll, I Want My Old Job Back)
• Meat Is Murder – The Smiths (from Meat Is Murder) Play
• Empty Cans – The Streets (from A Grand Don’t Come For Free) Play
• Walls Come Tumbling Down!* – The Style Council (from Our Favourite Shop) Play

* The CD version added Shout To The Top. It’d still make it, even with that change.

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