Great Career Closers (Final Release, Final Track)

‘Steal the Crumbs’ by Uncle Tupelo always struck me as an appropriate closer for a band that was fracturing (into Wilco and Son Volt). It’s tricky to find other examples as so many bands tarnish their legacy by idling along e.g, the Velvet Underground should have ended their career with ‘Oh Sweet Nuthin’ because ‘Squeeze’ isn’t really a Velvets album (it’s a Bob Yule album).

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I thought you were going to choose the final Songs: Ohia song, which is either Blue Chicago Moon or Hold On, Magnolia, depending on how you cut it. Both utterly heartbreaking.

You might be holding the last light I see
Before the dark finally gets a hold of me

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Crazy to think this album was released 20 years ago. Still sounds fresh today.

Again, Fugazi were another great band for album closers (Promises, Shut the Door, Last Chance for a Slow Dance, Long Distance Runner) and this may well be the best one.

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Though I like GY!BE’s post-hiatus albums, Motherfucker=Redeemer building and building and cutting off abruptly would have been the perfect candidate for this

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for now, although the return is surely imminent

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A great closer, but not from their final album.

Yes it was.

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heart-wrenching and beautiful, quintessential lenny.

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I actually think this is quite a nice career closer (and a highlight in the sludge of Machina) even if they’ve made Corgan’s vocals sound the most Corganesque they could’ve been

This is better though (albeit posthumous so doesn’t really count)

Then they never reformed and we certainly never heard anything from Billy Corgan again!

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Blue by REM is a lovely curtain call. They collaborate with Patti Smith again on a darker reworking of E Bow The Letter and Stipe’s last words are “Twentieth century, collapse into now”.

“It’s the final thing I sing, the last song on the record before the record goes into a coda and reprises the first song. In my head, it’s like I’m addressing a nine-year-old and I’m saying, 'I come from a faraway place called the 20th century. And these are the values and these are the mistakes we’ve made and these are the triumphs. These are the things that we held in the highest esteem. These are the things to learn from.”

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Takes some beating, surely?

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Only In Dreams

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(Squeeze isn’t a Velvet Underground album obviously)

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Well, I’ve seen some hot takes in my time, but denying the existence of Pinkerton is a pretty big one…

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Apart from El Scorcho nobody is gonna miss it.

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Tired of Sex is their best song