An album's title track is inevitably given more weight than the album's other songs, because it's natural to assume that the one song the entire album s named after must be something special. However, these artists chose to place even more weight on these particular songs by choosing to close out the entire album with them.
1. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
In the Court of the Crimson King may open with its most famous song ("21st Century Schizoid Man"), but it finishes with what is arguably its best: the nine-minute mellotron-heavy title track (though its actual title is simply "The Court of the Crimson King," no "In").
2. Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention - Weasels Ripped My Flesh (1970)
Frank Zappa's music was always strange, but it was rarely as aggressively inaccessible as the closing title track to 1970's Weasels Ripped My Flesh, which is just two minutes of Earth-shattering noise recorded live in concert.
3. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure (1973)
Roxy Music is often described as an "art pop" band, and the closing title track to For Your Pleasure demonstrates why: it's two minutes of an off-kilter ballad followed by five minutes of studio trickery and sonic experimentation.
4 & 5. Brian Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets/Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974)
For Your Pleasure was the last Roxy Music album that Brian Eno played on, and the following year, he continued the practice of closing out albums with their title tracks on his first two solo albums, Here Come the Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy).
6. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
Darkness on the Edge of Town was Bruce Springsteen's transition into more traditional song forms, so instead of closing out with ten-minute epics like he had on his previous two albums, he finishes out the album with the more palatable four-and-a-half minute title track.
7. The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms (1980)
New Jersey alt-rock pioneers the Feelies chose to close out their debut album with the six-minute title track, and though the song's rhythms aren't exactly "crazy," it does feature a drum solo of sorts in its middle section.
8. Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain (1984)
Echo &The Bunnymen proclaimed Ocean Rain to be the greatest album ever made when it was released in 1984. It's not even close, but it does have some lovely songs, such as "The Killing Moon," "Seven Seas," and the closing title track.
9. The Smiths - Meat is Murder (1985)
It's a good thing that the Smiths decided to place the title track to Meat is Murder at the very end rather than the very beginning, because if it were the album's opening track, it would have bummed everyone out too much to keep listening (and not in a typically angsty "bummed out listening to the Smiths" way either).
10. Slayer - Reign In Blood (1986)
The closing track to Slayer's seminal Reign in Blood isn't exactly a title track, but it's pretty close. If you say "Reign in Blood" fast enough, it sounds exactly like "Raining Blood."
11. The Bats - Daddy's Highway (1987)
The title track to the Bats' debut album Daddy's Highway isn't always its closing track. Some editions have it placed at the very end, while my vinyl edition has the album's two sides flipped, meaning that the title track closes out side A instead. I just end up playing Side B of my Daddy's Highway record first, because I think it flows better.
12. Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (1990)
Closing out Sinéad O'Connor's sophomore album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got is its stunning title track, which features O'Connor singing completely unaccompanied by any instruments.
13. Fugazi - The Argument (2001)
The last track to Fugazi's last album is, like "Raining Blood" or "The Court of the Crimson King," an almost title track. The album is title The Argument, while its last track is titled simply "Argument," but it's close enough.
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