Best album closer

[dozzer]

WLW purely because I get to hear Bag Lady after it otherwise i think 'Cardiff Afterlife' is easily the best closer

[Petro]

Sometimes, I'll just go on a song binge for "Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Family", it's just such a great song all around.

However, P.C.P does provide better closure...

[Mr Richey]

No question for me that "No Surface All Feeling" is the best album closer.

"Don't Be Evil" is not a bad song in my opinion, but it's a mid-album track and not a closer. As such, I consider that the worst album closer of all the Manics' records.

[Jayseph]

P.C.P., if only for the logic that if the Holy Bible had been their last album, I can't think of another song I'd have to bookend their career. As it were, so to speak.

Plus, it has a nice backing vocal. Very few Manics songs have nice backing vocals.

[River Boy]

Condemned to Rock n'Roll for me, just beating Cardiff Afterlife, not because I prefer the song but I like ending with a grand gesture.

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by River Boy

Condemned to Rock n'Roll for me, just beating Cardiff Afterlife, not because I prefer the song but I like ending with a grand gesture.

That final hanging guitar harmonic and James singing "There's nothing I wanna see, there's nowhere I wanna go" is one of the greatest moments in their entire catalogue. Sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear it. Just a perfect little moment

[Masochist Revol]

PCP!

[Mr.Selfdestruct]

Laughing my ass off that a couple actually gave their vote to SYMM

I went for PCP but NSAF is very close behind.

[Mr.Selfdestruct]

Originally Posted by harrijack

At least SYMM sums up the overall quality of the album pretty well.

I concur

[Tom]

Condemned to Rock n Roll. Maybe GT is objectively bad, and maybe it's all a bit embarrassing, but I'll always have a soft spot for it because it's a proper teen angst album. The closer just sums up the whole feel of the album and rounds it off in such an overblown way. Lovely.

PCP 2nd best, and Cardiff Afterlife 3rd. Love the abrupt ending on the last one, and the general clarity and sincerity of the lyrics.

[Mr Richey]

Originally Posted by harrijack

At least SYMM sums up the overall quality of the album pretty well.

With all due respect, BOLLOCKS. "SYMM" has terrible lyrics, there's no question of that, but musically it's fantastic. So atmospheric. It's a real mood piece.

[Tom]

Actually, BAG LADY. Maybe one of my favourite album closers of all time. After the bleakness of much of Journal you've suddenly got this furiously confident monster of a song. It's like somebody grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Richey83

musically [SYMM is] fantastic. So atmospheric. It's a real mood piece.

Indeed. A sonical wonder.

(Although I'm also pretty much the only person here who finds it lyrically rather swell as well.)

[Slideling]

Originally Posted by Flint

Indeed. A sonical wonder.

(Although I'm also pretty much the only person here who finds it lyrically rather swell as well.)

I like it too. I always thought it reads like a heartfelt editorial or poem.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Richian

I like it too. I always thought it reads like a heartfelt editorial or poem.

Heartfelt aye. I love it conceptually: wanting to describe and talk about something that muddles you up so much emotionally that you simply cannot put what you feel into words. And then in the chorus all that feeling is summed up to two blunt, clear lines - in the otherwise very beat-around-the-bush context, that one moment of clarity comes off as downright furious to me.

I can see why people think it's shit lyrically but I always feel it's a bit unfairly judged on the "well if you don't know what to say then you shouldn't write that" basis.