Edging Closer(s) I

In January, I took part in a Twitter thing where people nominated a different favourite album closing song for each day of the month.

We’re going in

Albums closers make for perfect playlists, because you’ve got a selection of tracks aiming to distill a closing statement for a full album. Play ’em on random, and the intensity should be unchanged and unabated.

My selections are on Apple Music and Spotify.

But for the sad musos out there, here’s the running commentary for Days 1-16. Interested to hear your takes.

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 2

It's inspired other great album closers & penultimate tracks. Thomas Erlewine describes it as having a grand sense of staged drama previously unheard of in rock & roll – Bowie himself saw the song in the French chanson tradition.https://t.co/MNMSBDqRih

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 2, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 4

Pete Shelley's love of Krautrock creates Buzzcocks' beautiful beast of pulsating, motorik-punk.

With the Fast Cars coda and infinite runout groove under the same track listing, it creates a perfect circle with the album opener.https://t.co/IQyWWkQEva

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 4, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 6

Would have dropped this one in earlier, but I never think of it as an album closer. Even on Fear of a Black Planet, it stands alone.

This track's just an absolute behemoth of hip hop. Hell, an absolute behemoth of music, period.https://t.co/EufQulGF6M

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 6, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 8

Things gone to hell? Dave Grohl knows you can fix em.

A 5'40" song inc. a 3'40" coda that *starts* by quietly referencing Devo's Gut Feeling b4 winding things up into all-out drum-smashing & screaming? That's how you close out.https://t.co/83PE8T8Ifj

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 8, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 10

My favourite album for years & I listened back to this track for the list. It CLOSES & keeps CLOSING up to & including the last two secs.

Maybe not the most momentous track on the list, but maybe the one that closes out hardest.https://t.co/rkjwNBIMqa

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 10, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 12

I've performed this track with @NerdBaitBand, and when you're inside it, it's really striking how the deceptively simple lyrics build and build to cap off the album and deliver Waters' message of solidarity to the listener. https://t.co/8pOAJKbFfp

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 12, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 14

I’m a sucker for a reprise, particularly one that encapsulates a “harrowingly intense” and “darkly hypnotic” album (thanks, Allmusic!) over six sprawling, psychedelic minutes.

Take a bow, Nick McCabe and The Verve.https://t.co/KYo3Dg31FO

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 14, 2023

#AlbumClosingSongs Day 16

Of *course* a Cure song called End has to be the end-iest album closing song to end all album closing songs.

To the extent that, when I first heard it in 1992, I genuinely thought Bob was calling it a day! https://t.co/tooZj5c03j

— Ricky Monahan Brown (@ricky_ballboy) January 16, 2023

That’s the End. Or, is it?

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