10 Best Rock Album Closers Ever
8. Where Did You Sleep Last Night - MTV Unplugged in New York
A traditional folk song originally written in the late nineteenth century, Nirvana's cover of "In The Pines" proved to be a brilliant way of ending their legendary 1994 Unplugged set.
The song's grim subject matter fits perfectly alongside the rest of the band's repertoire, to the point that assuming the track is actually a Nirvana original is an easy mistake to make. The sparse instrumentals and downbeat feel provides the perfect ending for this album, as it perfectly displays the band's penchant for the macabre and painful that defined their sound and the grunge era of the 1990's.
The song itself is already quite dark, but the emotion is amplified by Kurt Cobain's screeching vocals. Coming right at the end of the 53 minute set, Cobain's voice is clearly strained. However, he pushes through it to deliver sounds that very accurately convey the raw suffering and emotion that caused them.
The knowledge that this was one of the band's last performances before Kurt was found dead five months later adds another harrowing layer to an already bleak song. Overall, this is an incredibly memorable final track, as its dark overtones make it all the more affecting and unabating.