10 Rock Albums That Peak With The Final Song
You'll have to wait until right until the very end of these albums to get to their biggest songs.
You could make an argument that it's the first song on an album that's the most important, or even the second.
In fact, we've already done that here and here.
Whilst those are both valid points (especially when we make them), there's also a very strong case that it's actually the very last song on an album that's the one you need to nail.
Nothing is worse than sitting through an excellent collection of songs only to have the final one stink worse than a three-day-old bowl of dog food. As the old saying goes, it's how you leave 'em.
Thankfully, these ten records all understood that brief and saved their very best for right at the very end.
As we've said before with this series, we are not saying that these albums are bad up until the final song. What we're saying is that, in terms of quality or popularity, the closing track on each of these is the biggest and the best.
We're not encouraging you to skip right to the end of these fine albums. That's enough to land a person in audiophile hell.
10. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Just as the world was about to tip from the sleek, neon-clean sparkle of the 80s into the stinky old 90s, one English band gave rock music the push it needed to usher in a new era.
The Stone Roses' self-titled debut album was Britpop before Britpop was Britpop - a bunch of working class lads from Manchester making dreamy music with a pseudo-philosophical tone to it.
If this sounds like a dig, then it really isn't. This album rules.
After a beautiful ride through tracks like I Wanna Be Adored, Waterfall, and This Is The One, you reach the end of the record and what an ending it is.
I Am the Resurrection is a blistering eight-minute suite where the singing basically wraps up after less than half the runtime. The rest of the song is devoted to the absolutely insane guitar playing from John Squire, who takes you on a journey that requires no words to be effective.
A big musical blowout is always a good way to finish off an album and The Stone Roses are proof of that.
The rest of the album is terrific, but nothing touches this.