Best Openers and Closers for Albums

The last two tracks are just incredible. Corsicana is absolutely heartrending.

We lost our chance to run
Now the door's too hot to touch
We should hold our breath with mouths together now...

i enjoyed those songs along with the "french exit"
one of the more "sincerest" songs in a while
gotta love the antlers

edited 29th Jul '11 4:47:16 AM by CommanderObvious

Favorite Openers / Closers for me would have to both be for the Juno Reactor album Labyrinth, with Conquistador I / Navras, respectively.

I don't dislike protest lyrics, but a whole album of it results in very annoying anviliciousness, so yeah, it's criticism.

edited 29th Jul '11 11:25:29 AM by NEO

Openers:

Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl

David Bowie - Five Years

Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)

Pavement - Summer Babe

Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot

Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene

The Pixies - Debaser

Closers:

Eels - PS You Rock My World (to me it has a lot to do with the context of the album - basically at the end of a Creator Breakdown album about death, there's this musical Earn Your Happy Ending)

Foo Fighters - New Way Home

Elliott Smith - I Didn't Understand

The Flaming Lips - Sleeping On The Roof (okay, I'm kind of cheating, this is only the last song on the vinyl version, but the last two songs on this are "bonus tracks" to me since they're just The Not-Remix of other songs on the album)

edited 29th Jul '11 12:59:19 PM by MikeK

Openers:

"Race for the Prize (Remix)" - The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin

"Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" - Arcade Fire, Funeral

"Perth" - Bon Iver, Bon Iver

"Everything in its Right Place" - Radiohead, Kid A

"Hold On, Be Strong" - Out Kast, Aquameni

"Thunder Road" - Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run

"Teen Age Riot" - Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation

"Debaser" - Pixies, Doolittle

"Only Shallow" - My Bloody Valentine, Loveless

Closers:

lol, can't think of any right now. Although I do like "Who Will Survive in America" from Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

edited 29th Jul '11 3:25:37 PM by OurGLORIOUSLeader

I'd post the usual suspects... but nah. Here's something completely different from the good ol' Litis routine:

I'm 120% serious. This song is an incredible finale.

edited 30th Jul '11 2:04:00 PM by Litis

Fail. That's still a good song from a band I generally don't like

edited 30th Jul '11 2:17:17 PM by inane242

Oh hey, I used to have that album - I think even when I was way more into Industrial Metal I kind of thought it all started to sound the same except for the last track.

My fave opener:

"Night Electric Night" the third Deathstars album has "Chertograd". It's a kickass song and it fits GREAT as an opener.

Openers:

• Agalloch - "They Escaped The Weight of Darkness" (Marrow of the Spirit)
• Cannibal Ox - "Iron Galaxy" (The Cold Vein)
• Deltron 3030 - "3030" (Deltron 3030)
• El-P - "Tasmanian Pain Coaster" (I'll Sleep When You're Dead)
• Fleet Foxes - "Sun Giant" (Sun Giant EP)
• Radiohead - "15 Step" (In Rainbows)
• RX Bandits - "Untitled" (...And The Battle Begun)
• Tyler, The Creator - "Bastard" {Bastard)

Closers:

• Aesop Rock - "Shovel" (Labor Days)
• Aesop Rock - "Coffee (featuring John Darnielle)" (None Shall Pass)
• Cannibal Ox - "Scream Phoenix" (The Cold Vein)
• Florence + The Machine - "You've Got The Love" (Lungs)
• GZA - B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) (Liquid Swords)
• Madvillain - "Rhinestone Cowboy" (Madvillainy)
• Miles Davis - "In a Silent Way/It's About That Time" (In a Silent Way)*
  ^{does a song still count as a closer if there are only two tracks on the album}

Genesis - Trick of the Tail, which opens with the epic 'Dance on a Volcano' and ends with the powerful instrumental 'Los Endos' which also provides a book-ending.

Openers:

• Animal Collective - "Did You See the Words" (Feels)
• At the Drive-In - "Arcarsenal" (Relationship of Command)
• Bruce Springsteen - "Thunder Road" (Born to Run)
• Common - "Be" (Be)
• Dismember - "Override of the Overture" (Like an Ever-Flowing Stream)
• Drive-By Truckers - "Where the Devil Don't Stay" (The Dirty South)
• Emmylou Harris - "Wrecking Ball" (Wrecking Ball)
• The Flaming Lips - "Fight Test" (Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots)
• The Gaslight Anthem - "Great Expectations" (The '59 Sound)
• Girls - "Lust for Life" (Album)
• Interpol - "Untitled" (Turn on the Bright Lights)
• Japandroids - "The Boys Are Leaving Town" (Post-Nothing)
• Kaki King - "The Betrayer" (Junior)
• Manic Street Preachers - "Yes" (The Holy Bible)
• The Microphones - "I Want Wind to Blow" (The Glow, Pt. 2)
• Modest Mouse - "Dramamine" (This Is a Long Drive...)
• Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - "The Mercy Seat" (Tender Prey)
• Okkervil River - "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe" (The Stage Names)
• Panda Bear - "You Can Count on Me" (Tomboy)
• Patti Smith - "Gloria" (Horses)
• Pixies - "Debaser" (Doolittle)
• Silversun Pickups - "Melatonin" (Carnavas)
• Spiritualized - "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" (Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space)
• The Stooges - "Search and Destroy" (Raw Power)
• Tyler, the Creator - "Bastard" (Bastard)
• Weezer - "My Name is Jonas" (Weezer [Blue Album])

Closers:

• The Antlers - "Epilogue" (Hospice) (this has probably already been posted WHATEVER)
• Bob Dylan - "Desolation Row" (Highway 61 Revisited)
• Boris - "Just Abandoned Myself" (Pink)
• Brand New - "Soco Amaretto Lime" (Your Favorite Weapon)
• Broken Social Scene - "It's All Gonna Break" (Broken Social Scene)
• The Clash - "Train in Vain" (London Calling)
• Depeche Mode - "Clean" (Violator)
• Eels - "P.S. You Rock My World" (Electro-Shock Blues)
• Elliott Smith - "Say Yes" (Either/Or)
• Fugazi - "Argument" (The Argument)
• GZA - "B.I.B.L.E." (Liquid Swords)
• The Hold Steady - "How a Resurrection Really Feels" (Separation Sunday)
• Kanye West - "Gone" (Late Registration)
• LCD Soundsystem - "New York, I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down" (Sound of Silver)
• Led Zeppelin - "When the Levee Breaks" (Led Zeppelin IV)
• Mogwai - "Mogwai Fear Satan" (Young Team)
• The National - "Lucky You" (Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers)
• Neutral Milk Hotel - "Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2" (In the Aeroplane Over the Sea)
• of Montreal - "We Were Born the Mutants Again With Leafling" (Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?)
• Pavement - "Fillmore Jive" (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
• The Replacements - "Can't Hardly Wait" (Pleased to Meet Me)
• Sonic Youth - "The Diamond Sea" (Washing Machine)
• Tegan and Sara - "Call It Off" (The Con)
• Tom Waits - "Anywhere I Lay My Head" (Rain Dogs)
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Modern Romance" (Fever to Tell)

edited 1st Aug '11 10:54:43 PM by sca_punk

Seconding the Brand New closer.

The Long Island scene bands really know how to -open- and -close- an album~

Openers:

• Queens of The Stone Age - "You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Fell Like a Millionaire" (Songs for the Deaf)
• The National - "Terrible Love" (High Violet)
• The New Pornographers - "Moves" (Together)
• Hole - "Celebrity Skin" (Celebrity Skin)
• Paw - "Gasoline" (Dragline)

Closers:

• LCD Soundsystem - "New York I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down" (Sound of Silver)
• Alice in Chains - "Would?" (Dirt)
• Mastodon - "Crack The Skye" (The Last Baron)
• The Chemical Brothers - "The Pills Won't Help You Now" (We Are the Night)
• Mondo Generator - "Cocaine Rodeo" (Cocaine Rodeo)

Some Closers I'm fond of.

• Tyler, the Creator - "Golden" (Goblin, though the deluxe version ends with "Steaksauce" which is also good)
• GZA - "BIBLE" (Liquid Swords)
• DJ Krush - "Duality (Remix feat. DJ Shadow) (Stepping Stones: The Self-Remixed Best, Volume 2)
• Hail Mary Mallon - "Plagues & Bacon" (Are You Gonna Eat That?)

Even though the rest of the EP wasn't that good, I think "Bounce For The Intro" by Good Goose from the Lyin' With The Flesh, Flyin' With the Goose EP was pretty good because it gets you hyped.

"Golden" by Tyler, the Creator, from the Goblin album and "The Messenger" from Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns were good closers.

Masterpiece Theatre Parts I and III were good bookends to Marianas Trench's sophomore album.

There's Night A The Opera, which opens with "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To...)" and closes with Brian May's "God Save The Queen" guitar solo.

From the same group, there are great opening and closing tracks on A Kind Of Magic ("One Vision" and "Princes Of the Universe") and Innuendo ("Innuendo" and "The Show Must Go On").

"The White Songbook" by Joy Electric, first track from the album of the same name. A very simple concept—start with one looped synth track, then keep piling more tracks on top of it—made epic in execution. A fitting opening for JE's most epic album. Even back in my less enlightened days before I liked the album, I thought that song was pretty awesome.

edited 27th Aug '11 8:39:19 AM by MetaFour

I can't believe I didn't think about this earlier but Bijou/The Show Must Go On is not only one of the best closers for an album, it's the best closer for Queen's career, period.

The Stone Roses album is the most perfectly bookended album ever.

Opens with the atmospheric psychedelia of I Wanna Be Adored and ends with the tight, heavy and energetic jam of I Am The Resurrection.

I was confused for a second, but I figured out that I have the US version, which ends with "Fools Gold" instead (which still would be a great closer if it counted).

"We're Not Gonna Take It", from Tommy.

Bad opener: "The Poet And The Pendulum" by Nightwish (Dark Passion Play). How do you follow a 14-minute song about a Creator Breakdown? Not with a danceable, upbeat, poppy single. I wasn't too fond of the closer "Meadows Of Heaven" either; "7 Days To The Wolves" (the track before it) would have ended the album just fine.

Or better yet, open with "7 Days To The Wolves" and close with "The Poet And The Pendulum".