The last sound you're going to remember as you finish an album is the closing track, so as we've said before, it had better be good, or no matter how good the album is all you're going to remember is THAT track; you'll be humming it and not the seven/eight/nine others that came before it. Of course, a great closing track can also redeem a largely unremarkable album: if the last track is great, you'll remember it and not the other tracks, as above, but with a different emphasis.
An album I reviewed near the beginning of this journal, Pendragon's “Believe”, has an absolutely breathtaking closer, and this is it: “The edge of the world”.
Supertramp's final album with Roger Hodgson, “Famous last words”, gives even more importance and weight to the final track, “Don't leave me now”. From the opening mournful sax to the desperate, closing guitar solo, it's a classic the like of which we would consider ourselves lucky to hear again.
A great closer to a great album, Dio's second, “The last in line”, this is called “Egypt (The chains are on)”.
Although the CD version is longer and has more tracks, the vinyl copy I bought thirty years ago now of Pallas' “Arrive alive” had only five, and closed with this excellent epic, “The Ripper”.
And finally, the closing track to Roger Waters'
magnum opus, this is “Amused to death”.
Play any of those songs and guaranteed you'll be humming them to yourself long after they've faded or crashed into silence. Incidentally, every album featured above is excellent, but even if they weren't, each of these tracks would go a long way towards helping to redeem them.
Next time I'll endeavour to pick great closing tracks from albums which are, shall we say, less than great. Till then...