8 Albums That End With Instrumentals: Tom Waits, Hüsker Dü, And More

A well-constructed album should flow a lot like a film or a novel, with an engaging opening, rising action, and a satisfying conclusion. Some albums even come with a dénoument or epilogue, an instrumental closer that follows the climax. Here are eight albums that close with instrumental tracks.

1. Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones (1983)

One of Tom Waits' most singular and consistent LPs is 1983's Swordfishtrombones, which packs in an impressive 15 songs into 40 minutes. The last of these 15 songs is the jazzy instrumental piece "Rainbirds," with a minimal but effective arrangement of piano and upright bass.

2. Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade (1984)

Early on in Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade comes "Dreams Reoccurring," a brief psych-punk instrumental, which the band reprises and extends to 14 minutes as the album's closing track "Reoccurring Dreams."

3. Neutral Milk Hotel - On Avery Island (1996)

There are a couple of instrumentals placed throughout Neutral Milk Hotel's On Avery Island, but the biggest is the closer "Pree-Sisters Swallowing A Donkey's Eye," a 14-minute free noise improvisation featuring Indonesian instruments.

4. American Football - American Football (1999)

As the closer to their one and only album, American Football went with "The One with the Wurlitzer," a typically somber instrumental piece featuring, as its name implies, a Wurlitzer organ, as well as trumpet, guitars, and drums.

5. The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (1999)

Following the climactic space-pop epic "Feeling Yourself Disintegrate," the Flaming Lips' classic The Soft Bulletin finishes off with the dreamy instrumental piece "Sleeping On The Roof," which multi-instrumentalist Steve Drozd composed by randomly writing dots onto a music staff.

6. Elliott Smith - Figure 8 (2000)

Elliott Smith's fourth studio album Figure 8 was a departure from the lo-fi folk of his early work into more ornate and sonically eclectic material. Among the most whimsical tracks from this album is the instrumental closer, appropriately titled "Bye," featuring Smith playing piano from what sounds like the bottom of a well.

7. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2004)

The scope of Sufjan Steven's Illinois varies drastically over the course of the album, from intimate folk songs to sweeping chamber pop epics. In between these two extremes are Stevens' experiments with classical minimalism, such as the album's Steve Reich-inspired instrumental closer, "Out of Egypt, Into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt from My Sandals as I Run."

8. Dirty Beaches - Badlands (2011)

Dirty Beaches' 2011 album Badlands actually concludes with two instrumentals: the doomy funeral dirge "Black Nylon," followed by the scratchy minimalism of "Hotel."

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Sufjan Stevens, Elliott Smith, The Flaming Lips, American football, Neutral Milk Hotel, Husker du, Tom Waits