Top 5 Greatest Closing Tracks

One of my favorite websites is Absolutepunk.net. Today one of the big topics was your top 5 favorite closing tracks. I scanned the list and wanted to avoid repeats so these were the top 5 favorite closing tracks no one else had mentioned. This basically meant that my list would basically be the same but with A Day in the Life by the Beatles on the list.

5. Castaway - Punchline - When I listened to Punchline's 3rd album Just Say Yes I was blown away. Everyone praised Action in my circle of friends. I enjoyed the CD but I didn't find it life-changing in anyway. So I never picked up their follow-up album 37 Everywhere. In the summer of 2007 my friend shot a pilot for a Fox Series called "Singledom" and their song Somewhere in the Dark was the theme song. Sadly the show wasn't picked up, but I fell in love with the theme song. As soon as Just Say Yes came out i bought it and was blown away. This was not the band I remembered. Castaway is a slow song but it perfectly sums up the message of the album. While 37 Everywhere dealt with rejection and break-ups; Just Say Yes was about overcoming that break up. Castaway is the perfect final note to that album.

4. In The Music Box - Atmosphere - When i first heard When Life Gives you Lemons, Paint that Shit Gold I wasn't a big fan. It was good, but i missed the bizarre beats like the one's Ant presented on Lucy Ford or the poetic personal lyrics Slug laid down in godlovesugly... but over time I started to appreciate the brilliance of the album. Instead of autobiographical stories Slug sang of fictional characters. Closing track In The Music Box tells the story of a struggling musician on the road with his father. It's beautiful, touching and also at time funny.

3. Stay Positive - The Streets - Original Pirate Material ranks with Dog Problems, Whatever & Ever Amen, Come away With me and Turn the Radio Off as one of my all-time favorite albums. The album presents a dreary portrait of life in London. The Album is also the number 1 reason why I want to eventually visit London. Track after Track Mike Skinner presents different versions of London, promotes the reasons why pot is safer than alcohol and taught us that 'birds = bitches in europe'. However the closing track Stay Positive is the highlight of the album. The Song just SOUNDS like a rainy alleyway. The lyrics are completely depressing a negative and then ironically followed up with "Just Gotta Stay Positive".

2. Evaporated - Ben Folds Five - As stated above Whatever and Ever Amen ranks as one of my five favorite albums ever made. Evaporated has been my favorite Ben Folds song since I first heard Ben Folds. I've written scripts named after it, I wrote climatic scenes around the song, I sing this song in the shower. It's so haunting sad but yet beautiful, but worse of all, it's catchy as fuck. The bridge "I poured my heart out, but it evaporated" perfectly sums up the emotion of being in love with someone and suddenly... you're not. You can't help it, you can't control it... it just happens.

1. Every New Day - Five Iron Frenzy - Five Iron Frenzy is my all-time favorite band. They were one of the most entertaining, energetic and funny live bands of all time. Their 3 hour documentary Rise and Fall of Five Iron Frenzy is fascinating and nostalgia inducing. Every New Day has been the closing song to 3 Five Iron albums (Our Newest Album Ever!, Proof That the Youth Are Exploding, The End is Here) and has been the closing song to every Five Iron song since it was written. Seeing this song performed live was always a magical moment; regardless of your belief structure it's impossible to be moved by the overly poetic lyrics from Reese Roper and even more difficult to not become overwhelmed as the crowd around you sings along with the minute long bridge "Man vs. Himself/Man Vs. Machine/Man Vs. The World/Mankind vs. Me/The Struggles go on/The Wisdom I lack/The Burdens keep piling/ Up on my back/So hard to breathe/To Take the next Step/The Mountain is high/I wait at depths/Yearning for Praise/And hoping for peace/Dear God Increase/Healing hands/Of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again/Jesus Christ/Light of the world/Burning bright within our hearts forever/Freedom/Beens love without conditional/without a beginning or an end/Here's my heart/Let it be forever yours/Only you can make/Every new day seem so new"




Honorable Mentions:
Colin Hay - Just Don't think I'll Ever Get Over You (Transcendental Highway)
The Format - If Work Permits (Dog Problems)
Notorious B.I.G. - Suicidal Thoughts (Ready to Die)