Great albums with terrible last songs

"Compton" is the only song I don't like on Good Kid Maad City, sticks out like a sore thumb

Yes. You actually think "Take Up They Stethoscope" is better?

Um... no, indeed, that one isn't great. I do notice more of a contrast with Bike in regards to the rest of the album though (Stethoscope is also shorter and sounds more like a filler to me). And I definitely wouldn't rank it alongside all those tracks that truly stand out to me. Do you?

Aladdin Sane ends with Lady Grinning Soul, which is not a good song.

And maybe the quintessential example, Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s excellent, overlooked album Broken Arrow ends with a pointless cover of Baby What You Want Me To Do that sounds like it was recorded on a Walkman from the back of a tiny club.

REM’s Document ends with Oddfellows Local 151 which is nobody’s idea of a good song.

"Lady Grinning Soul" is not a good song, it's a great song

you're also fairly wrong about "Oddfellows"

i know ILM is the wrong place to say this but what a wonderful thing consciousness is that it can diverge so wildly between essentially similar creatures

After "Bike" I'm expecting someone to come along and post "After Hours" from The Velvet Underground.

yeah but this is still the wrongest thing in the thread

how is RiL not a party album when it's got Crosseyed & Painless on it?

well for one thing David Byrne is singing on it

― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, April 10, 2018 7:29 AM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Soul Survivor' makes perfect sense as a closer. It's a new beginning after an hour spent wading in delicious muck. Whether it's believable or not is another matter.

I was almost going to include Court and Spark too, but didn't because while I don't find the lightweight, jokey, "Twisted" to be an appropriate album closer, it's not *that* awful a song; it may have gone unnoticed if the other tracks weren't so great. I disqualified The Beach Boys Today because "Bull Session with the Big Daddy" isn't a song, and "In the Back of my Mind" is an excellent album closer. Ending Friends with "Transcendental Meditation" is a headscratcher though given that "I Went to Sleep" was recorded during the same sessions and would have closed the album perfectly.

"Bike" is a fine closer for Piper IMO.

As for 'Bike', I hated it at first but I was still wrapping my mind around Barrett-era Floyd at the time. Can't imagine the album without it at this point, thanks to the tape loop in particular.

dunno if I'd call it terrible but I've always found "Equator" on Kimono My House to be pretty obnoxious

Sunset is by far my least favorite song on Stranded by Roxy Music, not sure if I would call it a bad song though.

The first one I thought of when I saw the thread title was 'Engineers' from Gary Numan's The Pleasure Principle which isn't terrible, but unremarkable in comparison to the previous 9 tracks. I don't think Numan ever played it live either, at the time or since.

'(Exchange)' from Mezzanine is one I could do without.

what no it's a lovely balm after group four

Electric Warrior would be better ending with Life's a Gas rather than Rip Off

Exchange isn't terrible, it's just pointless, especially coming after Group Four.

Massive Attack never quite worked out closing tracks in general, although I do like Hymn of the Big Wheel.

Um... no, indeed, that one isn't great. I do notice more of a contrast with Bike in regards to the rest of the album though (Stethoscope is also shorter and sounds more like a filler to me). And I definitely wouldn't rank it alongside all those tracks that truly stand out to me. Do you?

Probably not, nonetheless I find the idea that it doesn't fit on an album that ranges from The Gnome to Interstellar Overdrive an odd one. Also Take Thy Stethoscope is longer, isn't it?

I may be crazy for nominating Bike, but Sunset has always been one of my favourite Roxy Music songs & part of why Stranded is my favourite album of theirs.
I also think Lady Grinning Soul is amazing.

I would have preferred a track that evokes 'Exchange's mood without being a half-assed reprise.

The first one I thought of when I saw the thread title was 'Engineers' from Gary Numan's The Pleasure Principle which isn't terrible, but unremarkable in comparison to the previous 9 tracks. I don't think Numan ever played it live either, at the time or since.

he's done TPP live so I'm sure he's played it a few times. for me the record is basically one tune in 10 parts. if we're doing Numan I'd rather mention "Zero Bars" - such an odd, wanky closer after the relatively brilliant "Jo the Waiter"

Probably not, nonetheless I find the idea that it doesn't fit on an album that ranges from The Gnome to Interstellar Overdrive an odd one. Also Take Thy Stethoscope is longer, isn't it?

Bike's longer (not by much), it is true that there's a lot of variation and weirdness on that album which is part of why it's such a wonderful record.

As for 'Bike', I hated it at first but I was still wrapping my mind around Barrett-era Floyd at the time. Can't imagine the album without it at this point, thanks to the tape loop in particular.

Could be that I still haven't listened to it enough.

Since we're all here, that thing at the end of "We're Only In It For the Money".

No one metioned Rubber Soul yet?

thomas dolby - the flat earth

the whole album is this gorgeous, beautifully produced atmospheric wonder.
then they put hyperactive on at the end as there was the need for a radio hit.

The inclusion of "Nothing Like You" on Miles Davis' Sorcerer is pretty baffling. It's five years older than everything else on the record, not even needed as filler (the album would be 38 minutes without it), and comes from a session Miles hated so much (with "that silly-ass singer Bob Dorough") that he refused to work with Teo Macero for years afterward.

Downtown on the first B-52's album is an obvious one for me. The album is still a classic despite this one misfire.

Closing tracks that overstay their welcome:
* Zen Arcade - Reoccurring Dreams
* The College Dropout - Last Call
* They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top - This Dust Makes That Mud

come on, last call is fantastic. i could listen to that loop for hours.

No one metioned Rubber Soul yet?

― chap, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 8:51 AM (thirty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Run For Your Life is a good enough rocker, tho obviously not up to the standard of the rest of the album. I think Dizzy Miss Lizzie is my Beatles pick for this category.

"and this day" on hex enduction hour.

There are worse tracks on it for other reasons, but nothing bores the shit out of me like 'Going Home' at the end of Aftermath

* Zen Arcade - Reoccurring Dreams

This is a highlight -- maybe the highlight -- of Zen Arcade for me. I always wished they released more stuff like this.

Co-sign "And This Day".

Run For Your Life is a good enough rocker, tho obviously not up to the standard of the rest of the album. I think Dizzy Miss Lizzie is my Beatles pick for this category

Tempted to go for "Her Majesty" here but I'm not sure whether it counts as the closing track on the album, being more of a hidden track which isn't what this thread is about.

* Zen Arcade - Reoccurring Dreams

This is a highlight -- maybe the highlight -- of Zen Arcade for me. I always wished they released more stuff like this.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, April 10, 2018 10:31 AM (eighteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would love Reoccurring Dreams as a 4 minute song, but as it stands, I'm pretty sick of it by the 23rd reprise of that riff, and would like the album better if it wasn't on there.

'Reoccurring Dreams' is the only song I care about on Zen Arcade.

Closing tracks that overstay their welcome:
* Zen Arcade - Reoccurring Dreams
* The College Dropout - Last Call
* They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top - This Dust Makes That Mud

― enochroot, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 7:24 AM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sure but they're all awesome? and one of them is a loop ffs

I always assumed the purpose of “And This Day” was to run out the album length to the (titular) hour...

Thriller, "The Lady in My Life."

I like And This Day. It's not, like, a great song, but as aimless jams go it's OK.

There are worse tracks on it for other reasons, but nothing bores the shit out of me like 'Going Home' at the end of Aftermath

― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Tuesday, April 10, 2018 2:30 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

'Goin' Home' is in the middle of the LP.

last track on the US version

And maybe the quintessential example, Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s excellent, overlooked album Broken Arrow ends with a pointless cover of Baby What You Want Me To Do that sounds like it was recorded on a Walkman from the back of a tiny club.

― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 6:06 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good pick, it really is an underrated album but i think this cover version kind of makes it feel cheap and tossed off (the *album* cover, which looks like a Xerox of a nice piece of art, doesn't do any favors either.)

I really can't think of many good examples of this. I mean, Mercury Rev's Boces probably didn't have to end with Girlfren, but equally why not - at least it's completely bonkers

I also think of “And This Day” along the same lines as the Gaffney song at the end of Sebadoh III – sort of a closing endurance test, to leave the listener bruised & battered. Punk rock, man...

yeah like Fodderstompf

Somebody feel like convincing me "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" on "Ummagumma" is not a load of old pony?

"Ummagumma" not really a great album though tbf.

kornrulez, The category is "Great albums with terrible last songs." You may not like "Oddfellows Local 151" but is it terrible?

I kinda like it. It's not my favorite song on that album, but in no way is it album-ruiningly terrible.

I tried and tried with Zappa but he's just fucking terrible

otm

decided to relisten to "Jumbo Go Away" just to see if it's as vile as I remember. it's actually much worse, though there is a crazy and brilliant middle section that sounds like the Residents on steroids. then afterwards "Jumbo better get back, or your eye will get black, once I give you a smack", filled by a minute of crying noises. anyway, long story short, I hate Frank Zappa now

Hard to think of a major figure who had such little sense of taste as to how to present his talent attractively

There's legends who alienate and rub fans the wrong way but it's hardly ever done as cheaply and as pointlessly

A Ghost is Born shouldn't end with the Late Greats right after the great Less Than You Think, which was the perfect ending.

BIKE IS FUCKING DOPE

I thought I was going to have to vouch hard for “Cassandra Gemini”, but as it is I just want to make the case that an 8-minute funereal jam session is a great final indulgence for a song that’s managed to maintain its energy so well for so long, esp. (as mentioned) when the chorus comes soaring back one last time at the end.

"shut up and play your guitar" is the other zappa album i like, just 3 CDs of guitar solos

Yeah that's one of the ones I owned once. Thought I would dig it! Maybe I'll try dipping back in.

probably doesn't count as it's a hidden track but "Hit to Death in the Future Head" has a nearly 30 minute harsh noise loop as a final track. i've never been able to listen to this great album all the way through.

my patience with songwriters who are either unable or unwilling to write a love song grows shorter as i grow older