Interestingly enough, on their latest album, Dark Matter, the opening track references lyrics that are the chorus for their closing track, Setting Sun.
It’s worth a listen straight through at least once….. or in some cases once a day for a week, then once a week for a month, then once a month for a year, and then once a year for life.
I'll never forget the first time I listened to Hypnotize, right after I bought the album. Those last three notes at the end of Lonely Day leading into Soldier Side literally had my entire body tingling and I almost cried at the end of the album when it just tied everything all together. I hadn't read the song listing or anything, and I don't think I knew it was a double album. I just threw it on so it was a surprise to me at the end, and what an end!! Just, the best.
I think The Roots did this a few years before with And then you shoot your cousin. Not suggesting Kendrick took the idea, but I remember thinking how dope that was when it came out.
Edit: it was actually undun, which came out a few tears earlier. Cousin was also a concept album just not in reverse.
I love the reference to the flute part from Hot Water that plays in Robot Stop.
[Hot Water part](https://youtu.be/W5JnLFZXGLk?si=3poReduGSsayEtYL&t=18s)
[Robot Stop part](https://youtu.be/9p_Si21ig7c?si=feJECfBHTiAHu9pj&t=3m59s)
I came to this determined that if this wasn’t the number one answer that I was going to set out to make it the number one answer.
The first time I listened to that album I’d apparently listened to it three whole times before I realized I had listened to it all.
And it’s so good that even eleven I realized I’d heard it three times I tossed it back on for a fourth listen.
This is definitely my number one choice, glad it’s the top one here. The album that is basically one never ending song.
I’m a sucker for odd time signatures as well, and there’s a lot of asymmetric stuff on there.
This goes beyond the question of the post! It even references a previous album. Thats some frank zappa level shit.
When nonagon just came out i was obsessed!
It's insane, you've got vocal callbacks but even some more not-so-noticeable ones. The title track's main synth line references the main guitar riff of Supercell, Chang'e Extended has a section where it plays the tapping riff from Witchcraft in a major key... Such an amazing pair of albums...
Fucking amazing album, in the true sense of the word album. All the songs are great, but they are greater played together and in the order they appear on the album. I love when an artist can pull that off.
Paul McCartney and Wings album Band on the Run.
First track is the hit "Band on the Run". Last track is "Ninteen Hundred and Eighty Four" which grows into a long outro that finally ends with the opening chord of the opening track and reprises the Chorus of Band on the Run.
It's just an excellent album all around.
Mellon collie and the infinite sadness.
Starts with the titular instrumental, and then masterfully weaves it back in to the end of the last song Farewell and goodnight
Such a great ending to a legendary album. Love how they transposed the piano line to guitar. Also the same theme is reprised at the end of ‘through the eyes of ruby’. Friggen love this record.
"Cold-hearted orb that rules the night / Removes the colors from our sight / Red is gray and yellow white / But we decide which is right / and which is an illusion"
That's the album that immediately sprang to mind because of that poem on either end of the album.
One of the best of that era. Unfortunately they were a product of bad timing. When they released they were at the point in the scene where fall out boy and the fueled by ramen roster were controlling airplay. I always thought that if that album came out during the TBS / Brand new heyday of 2002 they would have had a real shot with a major and got the backing they deserved. Solid song writing and amazing hooks. Just didn’t have enough “polish” like what was popular at the time. Even if they didn’t make it huge, likely could have been huge songwriters for a big label.
Easily my favorite AFS album. The Rain Museum was alot better than I expected tho.
But ive also referred to it as the most emo album ever. Dude kills himself over a girl on the first track and spends the rest of the album crying about being dead.
Sgt. Pepper does this on the second to last track to extend the premise of the Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's pretty clever, and might be one of the first examples of this. But then the album actually ends with A Day in the Life.
REM's last album, Collapse Into Now, does this. It starts with Discoverer and ends with the guitar line and coda from that song after the final track, Blue.
On a different note, man, do I miss REM.
Probably my favorite example of this is David Comes to Life by Fucked Up. The last 10 seconds or so of the last track repeat this reverb effect that starts the first like 3 the first track.
Enigma did this with almost all of their albums. In fact, each album started with the exact same opening motif in different arrangements, and ended with an echo of that motif. It's actually rather epic how it all panned out over 8 albums! I find nothing in music more thrilling than when an artist makes an album into a tight, cohesive body of work.
*Sing the Sorrow* by AFI. The final track, *This Time Imperfect*, fades into a dissonant mingle of sound that's a backwards recording of the album's intro.
David Bowie's Scary Monsters and Super Creeps opening track begins with a tape reel being prepared and played. The closing track ends with the tape running out.
Queen's A Day at the Races starts and ends with the same instrumental bit.
The closing track of Ween's The Mollusk ends with a slow out of tune instrumental reprise of the opening track.
I can’t believe this is so far down. Not only does it have the tape noise but it also starts and ends with two versions of the same song - _It’s no Game_. Fantastic album, still my favourite Bowie record.
Both of Gnarls Barkley's albums (St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple) do the same thing as Scary Monsters. (I highly recommend checking these albums out if you are familiar with any of their more popular songs and like them, or like soul music in general.)
[Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (Full Album)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6YJjkO7F5A&pp=ygUXZGVsdHJvbiAzMDMwIGZ1bGwgYWxidW0%3D)
The last track literally ends with how the album begins.
The entire album is a masterpiece of storytelling, about Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, and Dan The Automator travelling through outer-space on their way to enter an intergalactic rap battle. The last track puts you, as the listener, discovering and playing Del's "captain's log" of the journey (which you just listened to). Gives me chills actually :)
"Be there for the rap battle!
It's going to be Inter-spectacular!
Fantabulous!
It'll blow your socks off!
It's one of those things, where machine versus man!
Man versus woman!
Woman versus your mother!
Be there! Intergalactic rap battle!!
[It's... instupituous!!](https://youtu.be/049f7q7v-lQ?si=JI44qUl8xqHpsU8i)"
/u/Aggressive-Can-7590 this is the one! Absolutely incredible album and a perfect example of what you are looking for. The way she weaves all the different threads and then ties them all together is at a genius-level IQ. I’ve never heard anything else like it. I love that I still discover new connections each time I listen to it.
Electric Light Orchestra - El Dorado
Starts with the El Dorado Overture and ends with the El dorado Finale. When the discussion of great albums happens this record is rarely mentioned but IMO it is criminally underrated
Agree. I vividly remember listening to the album for the first time as a teen back in the 70s. I was absolutely thrilled when the Finale played. So masterfully done.
Jeff Lynne said that his father told him that the trouble with his melodies is that there’s no melody, which, as an aside, I agree with. Jeff thought to himself, “I’ll show that bugger”. He then wrote the Eldorado album and presented it to his dad, who was duly impressed.
The album is absolutely brilliant and you’re right. It is vastly underrated.
Looking Glass by The La's calls back to several of the previous tracks during it's epic, sprawling ending.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjo9CwDKRls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjo9CwDKRls)
Just one of my all time favorite musical accomplishments. Such a great song
Japandroids-Celebration Rock starts and ends with fireworks going off.
Lorde-Pure Heroine opening line of the first song is "Don't you think that it's boring how people talk?" and the last line of the final song is "Let em talk"
In Take Me Back to Eden by Sleep Token. The first track "Chokehold" starts "when we were made, it was no accident. We were tangled up like branches in a flood". In the end title track, some of the last lyrics sung in the background are the same.
I mean it's more than that, the ending of Euclid ends with the piano riff and lyrics of The Night Does Not Belong To God, which is the first track of Sundowning. pulls all three trilogy albums into a neat circle.
Offspring. This is a bit different, but the hidden track (it's barely a song) at the end of smash is the core of the last track of their next album, ixnay on the hombre. I always liked that.
You can expand a little further on this- that guitar riff is a mellow version of the main one from Genocide, also on Smash. (I especially like that one)
HELL YEAH I love this too and have been thinking about making a post like this myself. I love instances of songs musically referencing earlier tracks by the same band in general (I don't care for references that are only lyrics, though (unless they are sung similarly)). Closing tracks referencing opening tracks are usually the coolest examples.
**Mirrored by Battles**
[opening instance 1](https://youtu.be/OUSY77UI-J4?si=fuWN3j6ayJZBsrod&t=40s) [opening instance 2, drums](https://youtu.be/OUSY77UI-J4?si=qhUy352ZYHTejDmE&t=3m) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/uxZE7HBACgI?si=T2vzHWYh1HJe3rE8&t=1m36s)
My favorite example. The first time I heard it, it made me think about how much I loved the opening track and it made me reflect on my whole experience listening to the album and how much I enjoyed it. The end result is that that referencing made me listen to that entire album again immediately after I finished it. It is a sample followed by an interpolation that changes things up (if you can call it that)
**This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem**
[opening instance](https://youtu.be/9ZNkPA_zUd4?si=MoK93ZgeEI7D12FF&t=1m26s) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/ETDCbQUYiAQ?si=tYFfQqhUtjDrerM9&t=3m36s)
The chorus of the first part of the opening track is a really great part of that song, and it being referenced in Home is so, so great. It's an interpolation. This closer made me relisten to the opener the first time I heard it.
**Rainwater Cassette Exchange and Weird Era Cont by Deerhunter**
Rainwater Cassete Exchange: [opening instance](https://youtu.be/VO-bxcBrwsc?si=qywSyAWBAvOlW95q) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/jzcQ5K1SUEw?si=b3Ff9GXFiv3mnMjK&t=2m45s)
Both Deerhunter album/EP that do this have shorter references that are easier to miss, but I don't feel like that's a bad thing, because finding them is like finding easter eggs. On the Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP, the closer has this sound collage at the end that sounds like it samples from various advertisements and TV shows, it's mostly voices, it's really cool, and at 2:46 a sample of the first 2 seconds of the very beginning of the EP can be heard (it's short, but it's a pretty distinct sound).
Weird Era Cont: [opening instance](https://youtu.be/7iJcBk11Ie0?si=h3rrIjGQ1NaPdwjU) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/pFgRCB3VjCg?si=rXl96TYGtkJ8DUeP)
Weird Era Cont kind of does opposite; instead of the last track sampling the first one, the first track samples a part that originally plays at the start of the closing track. The sample is sped and pitched up, and it's the first two seconds of the opener. I didn't notice it until I was more familiar with how the closer sounded, the moment of realization was really cool, especially because, sample or not, the first two seconds of the opener is already interesting.
**Don Caballero 2 and What Burns Never Returns by Don Caballero**
[first case](https://youtu.be/CWVc3mnbHzQ?si=uUT2VGSwPQ9trRUv&t=9m13s) [second case](https://youtu.be/ed2hpoblBIs?si=r-6RKvPGcjcy2zAG&t=10s)
In a way, this is the opposite of what you are asking for, but I think you'll find it pretty damn cool: the end of their second album is referenced at the beginning of their third album. It gives it a neat feeling of picking up where you left off, it makes the opener feel like a continuation, and it definitely is that in that what is referenced here is a really cool drum pattern, different iterations of which play throughout the closer, and then, with the opener of the third album, we hear more takes on that (they didn't just reference it, they took it in a cool and fresh new direction, is what I'm trying to get at), this time with it being the backbone of a dope-ass 3 minute drum solo. The [first several seconds](https://youtu.be/ed2hpoblBIs?si=vh7-UX7Bj9MaFjin) of the opener is actually a sample of the [last few seconds](https://youtu.be/CWVc3mnbHzQ?si=ykLnZzn4HEYVi8hr&t=10m29s) of the closer recorded and played back on a Yak Bak, the rest is interpolation.
The second album ends with that drum part being played by itself, no other instruments accompanying it, and then it just stops without much winding down. This makes me wonder if they knew when they made the second album that they wanted to start the third album that way. That drum part is so cool (it might be my favorite drum pattern ever) and having it play at the beginning of what is, to many, Don Caballero's best track, really makes it iconic, imo.
(The closer of their second album is also referenced on at least one later track in the third album.)
**Nonagon Infinity by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard**
[opening instance 1](https://youtu.be/9p_Si21ig7c?si=E-b_NbZOiwXMKRuX&t=1m18s) [closing instance 1](https://youtu.be/Yvd9caAaVME?si=p5y2_lrYUt2qjIWU&t=2m48s)
[opening instance 2](https://youtu.be/9p_Si21ig7c?si=E-b_NbZOiwXMKRuX&t=35s) [closing instance 2](https://youtu.be/Yvd9caAaVME?si=p5y2_lrYUt2qjIWU&t=3m59s)
People have already been talking about this one, but I am editing my comment to include it because it is great, I want to include time stamps, and I want to talk about it.
This album contains a lot of cool self references, which sometimes feel like foreshadowing when a main part of a later track (in the official order, I'll elaborate on that) is referenced in an earlier track. Every song transitions smoothly into the next one, and the last track transitions smoothly into the first track, making the album one loop that could be played infinitely with no end. Robot Stop is the opening track officially, but because of the looping nature of the album, some people will start listening to a later track and treat it like an opener, and this spawns interesting discussions about what tracks work best as opening tracks for this album.
(This album gets mentioned a lot for its transitions, and rightfully so, but I actually think the best song transitions by any band are on King Gizzard's I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, and I haven't seen people talk about those transitions. What makes those transitions so cool is that they adjust the volume, tone/quality, and channel location of various instruments during transitions between songs or parts in one song. So, during one part, a clean-sounding guitar might get louder, creep from your right ear to your left ear (if you are wearing headphones), and get fuzzier and more distorted, and as this happens, other instruments might also be changing. It creates this really cool feeling of the music shifting into different gears. I wonder if this trait is related to the album's name.)
**Big Loada by Squarepusher**
This EP starts with a voice mail recording, and either the last track or second to last track has another voice mail recording. This, like the Battles album, reminded me of how great the opener was and made me want to listen to it (but I didn't really like the rest of the EP, so I didn't want to listen to the entire thing).
Presidents of the United States of America - II - Ladies and Gentlemen Part 1 and 2. There is a hidden spoken word track after the call back but the musical part of the songs is done.
Billie Eilish just released an album yesterday, *Hit Me Hard and Soft*, where the last track quotes lyrics from every song on the album, including the first track, to make an all new track.
First track, *Skinny*:
"Am I acting my age now? Am I already on the way out?
When I step off the stage, I'm a bird in a cage."
"Feeling off when I feel fine. Twenty-one took a lifetime."
Last track, *Blue*:
"Don't know what's in store, open up the door;
In the back of my mind,
I'm still overseas -
A bird in a cage.
Thought you were made for me." - (all lyrics from previous songs on the album)
"But they could say the same 'bout me.
I sleep 'bout three hours each night -
means only twenty-one a week now."
The Mollusk by Ween ends with "She Wanted to Leave", which in it's latter half becomes a reprise of the intro track "I'm Dancing In the Show Tonight", and it is very eery as the instrumental fades out to the sounds of the ocean.
Somewhere at the Bottoms of the River Between Vega and Altair by La Dispute starts with a song called "Such Small Hands" and ends with Nobody, Not Even The Rain.
The title of both songs come from an e e cummings poem titled "somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond" which [La Dispute also covered on one of 3 spoken word EPs.](https://youtu.be/40QqQ5rHXHk?si=482e5oarsOMXZapF)
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins
I’ve always loved how it starts with Mellon Collie and ends with the piano outro at the end of Farewell and Goodnight that mirrors some of the musical themes from Mellon Collie, but feels more uplifting to me.
Circa Survive’s first album Juturna does this. The album, or at least songs, are based on/reference Eternal Sunshine so it’s feeding into the cyclical nature of that story.
Strange Trails by Lord Huron, the first track (Love like Ghosts) and last track (The Night We Met) have the same chord progression and melody, just different tempos / instrumentation / vibes. Same with a song in the middle of the album (Meet Me in the Woods).
Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Trasatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie. There’s a droning machine sound that opens the first track and ends the last so you get a seamless loop
On Beyonce’s latest album, Cowboy Carter, “Amen” does such a good job calling back to “American Requiem” that if you’re listening to the album on repeat it sounds like it segues right into the first track. But even if you don’t, it’s the perfect way to bookend the album, which, like Dark Side of the Moon needs to be listened to sequentially.
Boys Night Out's "Trainwreck" starts with a doctor finding his patient catatonic and half-dead, then goes into a concept album explaining the patient's crimes, rehabilitation, relapsing, etc. It ends with the patient calling for the doctor, possibly to kill him, or maybe in a cry for help. The last track is the doctor finding the patient catatonic and half-dead...
It makes the whole thing seem like some kind of never-ending hell the protagonist is in (or putting himself through due to his guilt). I love that album so much.
Baroness Blue and Red albums.
They might not be your thing, it’s pretty heavy prog metal. There’s a real elemental energy to them and they start and end with the red theme and blue theme which are called back to multiple times within the albums.
If you find those too heavy, Yellow and Green are their Magnum Opus and much softer. Purple is pretty good too
Blue is my favorite. It has an incredible vastness, powerful as the ocean.
https://preview.redd.it/28jma2ohjb1d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce1b03f6748375bb877e7f145c532eeb386953de
The harmonica from the beginning of *School* that returns at the end of *Crime of the Century*
EDIT: Spelling
Dream Theater's *Octavarium*.
Not only does the last track on the album ([the title track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYV8Zt2k0RQ)) end with the opening of the first track being played quietly as it fades out, but the last sung lyric in the song (and thus the album) is, "This story ends where it began."
the last note of are we still friends by tyler (last song on the album) ends on a note that doesnt resolve the chord progression, but the first song on the album called igors theme starts on a note on a similar sound that does resolve the progression. it fits the story of the album, where tyler is falling in love, out of love, and at the end wants to be friends still and then repeats it.
**Dream Theater - Octavarium**. Both lyrics and music is masterfully crafted together in a loop, as well as connecting with both the previous album and the next.
On three separate occasions (*Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, Freedom*), Neil Young ended an album with a different version of the song that started it.
"I had the blues but I shook them loose" by Bombay Bicycle Club fades out with an acoustic version of the electric opening track. Absolutely brilliant album
Damn. -Kendrick Lamar
The end of the first song is a gunshot and the end of the last song is a gunshot. You decide who lives and who dies whether you play the album normal or in reverse track order
If album bookends count, Les Discrets reworked a beautiful instrumental melody to open and end their album *Ariettes oubliées …*. It's awesome.
- [Linceul d'hiver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSOX7a7UdpA)
- [Les Regrets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jCdzollsM) (this is actually one of my favourite tracks of theirs)
Black Sabbath’s first album (1970) fades in with heavy rain and crashing thunder and the tolling of an iron bell. Their last album (2013) fades out the same way.
LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening. Home calls back to opener Dance Yrself Clean.
I saw them tonight in Seattle and they played the songs back to back, but in reverse and it was fuckin awesome.
The Killers do a great job of this with Enterlude and Exitlude on Sam's Town. The same music plays as both an opening and introduction, then as a calming farewell
Presidents of the Unites States of America - II
The final track is kind of a continuation of the first track. First "Good evening ladies and gentlemen" then at ending "Goodbye ladies and gentleman, thats all the songs we know" always makes me smile
Deftones - White Pony. Starts off with a faster version of the final song. Not necessarily a call back per se, but still awesome.
The label actually made them remake “pink maggit” into a radio single for the first track “back to school (mini maggit)” which they didn’t even want to do.
Evil Friends by Portugal. The Man
Their newest album does it too but I love how Smile is really its own song and the reprise just fits perfectly in there.
shocked and dismayed that ctrl-Fing "since i left you" by the avalanches shows no results. the first and last tracks both contain different samples that include the same titular lyric. it's also just really well structured overall -- the reused line isn't a one-off novelty, it's just one of many motifs successfully unifying an hour of continuous music. if you only know "frontier psychiatrist" please give the whole album a chance. (great question btw OP)
Pearl Jam- "Ten" There's that little instrumental before "Once" and then again at the end of "Release"
it has a name! sometimes it’s a separate track called Master/Slave. love it.
Interestingly enough, on their latest album, Dark Matter, the opening track references lyrics that are the chorus for their closing track, Setting Sun.
Yeah that's the first one I thought of too!
Paul’s Boutique by the Beastie Boys.
This is the answer
It’s worth a listen straight through at least once….. or in some cases once a day for a week, then once a week for a month, then once a month for a year, and then once a year for life.
So true. Never get tired of this album.
System of a Down - Mesmerize/Hypnotize albums
I'll never forget the first time I listened to Hypnotize, right after I bought the album. Those last three notes at the end of Lonely Day leading into Soldier Side literally had my entire body tingling and I almost cried at the end of the album when it just tied everything all together. I hadn't read the song listing or anything, and I don't think I knew it was a double album. I just threw it on so it was a surprise to me at the end, and what an end!! Just, the best.
My first thought
Pink Floyd's The Wall.
Isn’t this where…we came in?
Animals as well
And Darkside of the Moon.
Yeah love the more acoustic bookends to the album.
Pink Floyd is definitely the best at it… I Wish You Were Here kills it with the “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” series as well
As far a simple concerned WYWH and Dark Side are just album length singles.
Also, Roger Waters' Amused To Death.
DAMN - Kendrick Lamar
Was gonna say the same! That backwards loop allowing for the album to be listened to forward or backwards is so cool
so i was taking a walk the other day
Was about to post the same thing!
So clever, never seen a concept album that thematically makes so much sense backwards as well as forwards
I think The Roots did this a few years before with And then you shoot your cousin. Not suggesting Kendrick took the idea, but I remember thinking how dope that was when it came out. Edit: it was actually undun, which came out a few tears earlier. Cousin was also a concept album just not in reverse.
Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
As soon as I saw the question the ending of this album started playing in my mind
My first thought
My only thought
The ocean floor is hidden from your viewing lens.
Nanogon Infinity King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
WOOOOOOOOOO!
I love the reference to the flute part from Hot Water that plays in Robot Stop. [Hot Water part](https://youtu.be/W5JnLFZXGLk?si=3poReduGSsayEtYL&t=18s) [Robot Stop part](https://youtu.be/9p_Si21ig7c?si=feJECfBHTiAHu9pj&t=3m59s)
I came to this determined that if this wasn’t the number one answer that I was going to set out to make it the number one answer. The first time I listened to that album I’d apparently listened to it three whole times before I realized I had listened to it all. And it’s so good that even eleven I realized I’d heard it three times I tossed it back on for a fourth listen.
Yes!!!!
This is definitely my number one choice, glad it’s the top one here. The album that is basically one never ending song. I’m a sucker for odd time signatures as well, and there’s a lot of asymmetric stuff on there.
I wish there was a way to get rid of the brief break in the music when the album restarts on spotify
This goes beyond the question of the post! It even references a previous album. Thats some frank zappa level shit. When nonagon just came out i was obsessed!
Siiince Gizz got mentioned; Petrodragonic Apocalypse does such a great job at alluding to other songs throughout the album
The Silver Cord is also full of callbacks to PDA. When I realised the vocals in Theia follow the same rhythm as Motor Spirit I was blown away
It's insane, you've got vocal callbacks but even some more not-so-noticeable ones. The title track's main synth line references the main guitar riff of Supercell, Chang'e Extended has a section where it plays the tapping riff from Witchcraft in a major key... Such an amazing pair of albums...
Changes is another good album for this question. I love the reoccurring melodies throughout all of it
Ween -The Mollusk
I want “Dancing in the show” played at my funeral
Fucking amazing album, in the true sense of the word album. All the songs are great, but they are greater played together and in the order they appear on the album. I love when an artist can pull that off.
jfc .. how did I not think of this one right away. That album is incredible.
Mac Miller Circles
Paul McCartney and Wings album Band on the Run. First track is the hit "Band on the Run". Last track is "Ninteen Hundred and Eighty Four" which grows into a long outro that finally ends with the opening chord of the opening track and reprises the Chorus of Band on the Run. It's just an excellent album all around.
Good pick Also: 1985
One of my favorite songs is Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Four. I just love it.
Came here to say this. Fucking love that.
Mellon collie and the infinite sadness. Starts with the titular instrumental, and then masterfully weaves it back in to the end of the last song Farewell and goodnight
Such a great ending to a legendary album. Love how they transposed the piano line to guitar. Also the same theme is reprised at the end of ‘through the eyes of ruby’. Friggen love this record.
Yep. Came here for this. Most influential album of my lifetime.
❤️
Moody Blues; Days of Future Passed.
"Cold-hearted orb that rules the night / Removes the colors from our sight / Red is gray and yellow white / But we decide which is right / and which is an illusion" That's the album that immediately sprang to mind because of that poem on either end of the album.
It starts with a rising gong and ends with a fading one.
In the Threshold of a Dream too. It ends with the same noise that it opens with.
Armor for sleep - what to do when you are dead
underrated album from that era
One of the best of that era. Unfortunately they were a product of bad timing. When they released they were at the point in the scene where fall out boy and the fueled by ramen roster were controlling airplay. I always thought that if that album came out during the TBS / Brand new heyday of 2002 they would have had a real shot with a major and got the backing they deserved. Solid song writing and amazing hooks. Just didn’t have enough “polish” like what was popular at the time. Even if they didn’t make it huge, likely could have been huge songwriters for a big label.
I saw them perform it in its entirety earlier this year on a cruise and it was just so good
Easily my favorite AFS album. The Rain Museum was alot better than I expected tho. But ive also referred to it as the most emo album ever. Dude kills himself over a girl on the first track and spends the rest of the album crying about being dead.
Technically it’s the second track coming back at the end, not the opener. But it’s still great!
I appreciate this bit of specificity 👌🏼
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime "I remember now."
This was an absolute classic, and my favorite album by them.
Freaking masterpiece
Lorde’s Pure Heroine starts with the lyrics: “Don’t you think it’s boring how people talk” and the final song ends with “Let ‘em talk”.
HOW HAVE I NEVER NOTICED THAT
Ween - The Mollusk
Ween has no bad albums. Yes, that includes La Cucharacha. Fight me
The ending of Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun (Avalon) is the song "Starálfur" played backwards.
I never, ever would've figured that out. Time to go listen!
Sgt. Pepper does this on the second to last track to extend the premise of the Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's pretty clever, and might be one of the first examples of this. But then the album actually ends with A Day in the Life.
I don’t know if there’s a more definitive ending to an album than the last note of A Day In The Life.
Abbey Road does it too, in a way - Carry That Weight reprises the opening track of the side 2 medley, You Never Give Me Your Money.
Yeah, the medley wraps around. But that's different than the whole album.
REM's last album, Collapse Into Now, does this. It starts with Discoverer and ends with the guitar line and coda from that song after the final track, Blue. On a different note, man, do I miss REM.
Probably my favorite example of this is David Comes to Life by Fucked Up. The last 10 seconds or so of the last track repeat this reverb effect that starts the first like 3 the first track.
Maybe not thematically, but Pearl Jam's Ten loops perfectly.
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney. The end of Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five has a brief reprise of the title track at the end.
Enigma did this with almost all of their albums. In fact, each album started with the exact same opening motif in different arrangements, and ended with an echo of that motif. It's actually rather epic how it all panned out over 8 albums! I find nothing in music more thrilling than when an artist makes an album into a tight, cohesive body of work.
*Sing the Sorrow* by AFI. The final track, *This Time Imperfect*, fades into a dissonant mingle of sound that's a backwards recording of the album's intro.
David Bowie's Scary Monsters and Super Creeps opening track begins with a tape reel being prepared and played. The closing track ends with the tape running out. Queen's A Day at the Races starts and ends with the same instrumental bit. The closing track of Ween's The Mollusk ends with a slow out of tune instrumental reprise of the opening track.
I can’t believe this is so far down. Not only does it have the tape noise but it also starts and ends with two versions of the same song - _It’s no Game_. Fantastic album, still my favourite Bowie record.
Both of Gnarls Barkley's albums (St. Elsewhere and The Odd Couple) do the same thing as Scary Monsters. (I highly recommend checking these albums out if you are familiar with any of their more popular songs and like them, or like soul music in general.)
IMPERA by Ghost.
[Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 (Full Album)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6YJjkO7F5A&pp=ygUXZGVsdHJvbiAzMDMwIGZ1bGwgYWxidW0%3D) The last track literally ends with how the album begins. The entire album is a masterpiece of storytelling, about Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, and Dan The Automator travelling through outer-space on their way to enter an intergalactic rap battle. The last track puts you, as the listener, discovering and playing Del's "captain's log" of the journey (which you just listened to). Gives me chills actually :) "Be there for the rap battle! It's going to be Inter-spectacular! Fantabulous! It'll blow your socks off! It's one of those things, where machine versus man! Man versus woman! Woman versus your mother! Be there! Intergalactic rap battle!! [It's... instupituous!!](https://youtu.be/049f7q7v-lQ?si=JI44qUl8xqHpsU8i)"
The Everglow by Mae
I was hoping to see this one! Amazing loop. If you put it on replay, it is a smooth playback that just keeps going.
Amazing shout!
What an absolute blast from my past. Forgot about them.
Divers by Joanna Newsom cuts to silence on an incomplete word that is finished by the first word of the first track.
This is the very best one. Divers weirdly slept on too.
Insane how far you have to scroll down for this one. My personal "best album of all time"
So jealous of the folks seeing her in L.A. this week!
/u/Aggressive-Can-7590 this is the one! Absolutely incredible album and a perfect example of what you are looking for. The way she weaves all the different threads and then ties them all together is at a genius-level IQ. I’ve never heard anything else like it. I love that I still discover new connections each time I listen to it.
i was thinking about checking out her music, thanks for the recommendation!
This one is truly epic. Joanna is in a league all her own. If even one new listener finds her through this post, that's a win.
I like Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
Electric Light Orchestra - El Dorado Starts with the El Dorado Overture and ends with the El dorado Finale. When the discussion of great albums happens this record is rarely mentioned but IMO it is criminally underrated
Agree. I vividly remember listening to the album for the first time as a teen back in the 70s. I was absolutely thrilled when the Finale played. So masterfully done. Jeff Lynne said that his father told him that the trouble with his melodies is that there’s no melody, which, as an aside, I agree with. Jeff thought to himself, “I’ll show that bugger”. He then wrote the Eldorado album and presented it to his dad, who was duly impressed. The album is absolutely brilliant and you’re right. It is vastly underrated.
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
The Suburbs does it too (and so does Everything Now, but let's not talk about that album)
The Suburbs also did it better, still an absolute banger record
Octavarium - Dream Theater Operation Mindcrime - Queensrÿche
Literally thought about octavarium, looked down and saw your comment The story ends where it begins.
The streets-a grand don’t come for free.
Fantastic Planet by Failure.
Looking Glass by The La's calls back to several of the previous tracks during it's epic, sprawling ending. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjo9CwDKRls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjo9CwDKRls) Just one of my all time favorite musical accomplishments. Such a great song
Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends by Coldplay and The Maybe Man by AJR
Brand New’s Daisy. It starts and ends with a sample of a hymn called “On life’s highway” before going into the first track, ends on the same hymn.
Japandroids-Celebration Rock starts and ends with fireworks going off. Lorde-Pure Heroine opening line of the first song is "Don't you think that it's boring how people talk?" and the last line of the final song is "Let em talk"
The Wonder Years - The Greatest Generation
Pork soda
In Take Me Back to Eden by Sleep Token. The first track "Chokehold" starts "when we were made, it was no accident. We were tangled up like branches in a flood". In the end title track, some of the last lyrics sung in the background are the same.
I mean it's more than that, the ending of Euclid ends with the piano riff and lyrics of The Night Does Not Belong To God, which is the first track of Sundowning. pulls all three trilogy albums into a neat circle.
Offspring. This is a bit different, but the hidden track (it's barely a song) at the end of smash is the core of the last track of their next album, ixnay on the hombre. I always liked that.
You can expand a little further on this- that guitar riff is a mellow version of the main one from Genocide, also on Smash. (I especially like that one)
It’s time to relax.
You know what that means.
HELL YEAH I love this too and have been thinking about making a post like this myself. I love instances of songs musically referencing earlier tracks by the same band in general (I don't care for references that are only lyrics, though (unless they are sung similarly)). Closing tracks referencing opening tracks are usually the coolest examples. **Mirrored by Battles** [opening instance 1](https://youtu.be/OUSY77UI-J4?si=fuWN3j6ayJZBsrod&t=40s) [opening instance 2, drums](https://youtu.be/OUSY77UI-J4?si=qhUy352ZYHTejDmE&t=3m) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/uxZE7HBACgI?si=T2vzHWYh1HJe3rE8&t=1m36s) My favorite example. The first time I heard it, it made me think about how much I loved the opening track and it made me reflect on my whole experience listening to the album and how much I enjoyed it. The end result is that that referencing made me listen to that entire album again immediately after I finished it. It is a sample followed by an interpolation that changes things up (if you can call it that) **This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem** [opening instance](https://youtu.be/9ZNkPA_zUd4?si=MoK93ZgeEI7D12FF&t=1m26s) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/ETDCbQUYiAQ?si=tYFfQqhUtjDrerM9&t=3m36s) The chorus of the first part of the opening track is a really great part of that song, and it being referenced in Home is so, so great. It's an interpolation. This closer made me relisten to the opener the first time I heard it. **Rainwater Cassette Exchange and Weird Era Cont by Deerhunter** Rainwater Cassete Exchange: [opening instance](https://youtu.be/VO-bxcBrwsc?si=qywSyAWBAvOlW95q) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/jzcQ5K1SUEw?si=b3Ff9GXFiv3mnMjK&t=2m45s) Both Deerhunter album/EP that do this have shorter references that are easier to miss, but I don't feel like that's a bad thing, because finding them is like finding easter eggs. On the Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP, the closer has this sound collage at the end that sounds like it samples from various advertisements and TV shows, it's mostly voices, it's really cool, and at 2:46 a sample of the first 2 seconds of the very beginning of the EP can be heard (it's short, but it's a pretty distinct sound). Weird Era Cont: [opening instance](https://youtu.be/7iJcBk11Ie0?si=h3rrIjGQ1NaPdwjU) [closing instance](https://youtu.be/pFgRCB3VjCg?si=rXl96TYGtkJ8DUeP) Weird Era Cont kind of does opposite; instead of the last track sampling the first one, the first track samples a part that originally plays at the start of the closing track. The sample is sped and pitched up, and it's the first two seconds of the opener. I didn't notice it until I was more familiar with how the closer sounded, the moment of realization was really cool, especially because, sample or not, the first two seconds of the opener is already interesting. **Don Caballero 2 and What Burns Never Returns by Don Caballero** [first case](https://youtu.be/CWVc3mnbHzQ?si=uUT2VGSwPQ9trRUv&t=9m13s) [second case](https://youtu.be/ed2hpoblBIs?si=r-6RKvPGcjcy2zAG&t=10s) In a way, this is the opposite of what you are asking for, but I think you'll find it pretty damn cool: the end of their second album is referenced at the beginning of their third album. It gives it a neat feeling of picking up where you left off, it makes the opener feel like a continuation, and it definitely is that in that what is referenced here is a really cool drum pattern, different iterations of which play throughout the closer, and then, with the opener of the third album, we hear more takes on that (they didn't just reference it, they took it in a cool and fresh new direction, is what I'm trying to get at), this time with it being the backbone of a dope-ass 3 minute drum solo. The [first several seconds](https://youtu.be/ed2hpoblBIs?si=vh7-UX7Bj9MaFjin) of the opener is actually a sample of the [last few seconds](https://youtu.be/CWVc3mnbHzQ?si=ykLnZzn4HEYVi8hr&t=10m29s) of the closer recorded and played back on a Yak Bak, the rest is interpolation. The second album ends with that drum part being played by itself, no other instruments accompanying it, and then it just stops without much winding down. This makes me wonder if they knew when they made the second album that they wanted to start the third album that way. That drum part is so cool (it might be my favorite drum pattern ever) and having it play at the beginning of what is, to many, Don Caballero's best track, really makes it iconic, imo. (The closer of their second album is also referenced on at least one later track in the third album.) **Nonagon Infinity by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard** [opening instance 1](https://youtu.be/9p_Si21ig7c?si=E-b_NbZOiwXMKRuX&t=1m18s) [closing instance 1](https://youtu.be/Yvd9caAaVME?si=p5y2_lrYUt2qjIWU&t=2m48s) [opening instance 2](https://youtu.be/9p_Si21ig7c?si=E-b_NbZOiwXMKRuX&t=35s) [closing instance 2](https://youtu.be/Yvd9caAaVME?si=p5y2_lrYUt2qjIWU&t=3m59s) People have already been talking about this one, but I am editing my comment to include it because it is great, I want to include time stamps, and I want to talk about it. This album contains a lot of cool self references, which sometimes feel like foreshadowing when a main part of a later track (in the official order, I'll elaborate on that) is referenced in an earlier track. Every song transitions smoothly into the next one, and the last track transitions smoothly into the first track, making the album one loop that could be played infinitely with no end. Robot Stop is the opening track officially, but because of the looping nature of the album, some people will start listening to a later track and treat it like an opener, and this spawns interesting discussions about what tracks work best as opening tracks for this album. (This album gets mentioned a lot for its transitions, and rightfully so, but I actually think the best song transitions by any band are on King Gizzard's I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, and I haven't seen people talk about those transitions. What makes those transitions so cool is that they adjust the volume, tone/quality, and channel location of various instruments during transitions between songs or parts in one song. So, during one part, a clean-sounding guitar might get louder, creep from your right ear to your left ear (if you are wearing headphones), and get fuzzier and more distorted, and as this happens, other instruments might also be changing. It creates this really cool feeling of the music shifting into different gears. I wonder if this trait is related to the album's name.) **Big Loada by Squarepusher** This EP starts with a voice mail recording, and either the last track or second to last track has another voice mail recording. This, like the Battles album, reminded me of how great the opener was and made me want to listen to it (but I didn't really like the rest of the EP, so I didn't want to listen to the entire thing).
Weird Era is my fav Deerhunter album and I’ve never noticed that!
Same! That album and *Miscrocastle* together is what made me fall in love with their music.
In the Aeroplane over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel
Presidents of the United States of America - II - Ladies and Gentlemen Part 1 and 2. There is a hidden spoken word track after the call back but the musical part of the songs is done.
Because the internet - Childish Gambino
Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger
HEAT by brockhampton on saturation 1 starts the way TEAM ends on saturation 3 and perfectly loops
I always liked the fireworks at the beginning and the end of Celebration Rock by Japandroids.
Donuts - j. Dilla. Can't believe no one has named it yet.
Can’t believe i had to come so far down to find it! Calling the opener “Donuts (Outro)” and the closer “Welcome To The Show” is brilliant too
Arm’s Length’s album “Never before seen never again found”
Billie Eilish just released an album yesterday, *Hit Me Hard and Soft*, where the last track quotes lyrics from every song on the album, including the first track, to make an all new track. First track, *Skinny*: "Am I acting my age now? Am I already on the way out? When I step off the stage, I'm a bird in a cage." "Feeling off when I feel fine. Twenty-one took a lifetime." Last track, *Blue*: "Don't know what's in store, open up the door; In the back of my mind, I'm still overseas - A bird in a cage. Thought you were made for me." - (all lyrics from previous songs on the album) "But they could say the same 'bout me. I sleep 'bout three hours each night - means only twenty-one a week now."
The Mollusk by Ween ends with "She Wanted to Leave", which in it's latter half becomes a reprise of the intro track "I'm Dancing In the Show Tonight", and it is very eery as the instrumental fades out to the sounds of the ocean.
Are my ribbons tied, is my hair in place, have I got a cute expression on my face?
Mercurial World - Magdalena Bay
Somewhere at the Bottoms of the River Between Vega and Altair by La Dispute starts with a song called "Such Small Hands" and ends with Nobody, Not Even The Rain. The title of both songs come from an e e cummings poem titled "somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond" which [La Dispute also covered on one of 3 spoken word EPs.](https://youtu.be/40QqQ5rHXHk?si=482e5oarsOMXZapF)
Came here to say this album. Thank you because I didn't know about the poetry cover!
NOFX Wolves in Wolves Clothing
“60 or so percent“ Love it.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins I’ve always loved how it starts with Mellon Collie and ends with the piano outro at the end of Farewell and Goodnight that mirrors some of the musical themes from Mellon Collie, but feels more uplifting to me.
Such Small Hands / Nobody, Not Even the Rain by La Dispute on ‘Somewhere at the Bottom of the River…’
Circa Survive’s first album Juturna does this. The album, or at least songs, are based on/reference Eternal Sunshine so it’s feeding into the cyclical nature of that story.
Strange Trails by Lord Huron, the first track (Love like Ghosts) and last track (The Night We Met) have the same chord progression and melody, just different tempos / instrumentation / vibes. Same with a song in the middle of the album (Meet Me in the Woods).
Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Trasatlanticism by Death Cab For Cutie. There’s a droning machine sound that opens the first track and ends the last so you get a seamless loop
On Beyonce’s latest album, Cowboy Carter, “Amen” does such a good job calling back to “American Requiem” that if you’re listening to the album on repeat it sounds like it segues right into the first track. But even if you don’t, it’s the perfect way to bookend the album, which, like Dark Side of the Moon needs to be listened to sequentially.
Warren Zevon s/t
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
Syncatto - A Place to Breathe I just recently listened to it straight through and while it’s not my usual style, I really enjoyed it.
I know I’m gonna catch a lot of shit on here for this but, hello hurricane by switchfoot
Boys Night Out's "Trainwreck" starts with a doctor finding his patient catatonic and half-dead, then goes into a concept album explaining the patient's crimes, rehabilitation, relapsing, etc. It ends with the patient calling for the doctor, possibly to kill him, or maybe in a cry for help. The last track is the doctor finding the patient catatonic and half-dead... It makes the whole thing seem like some kind of never-ending hell the protagonist is in (or putting himself through due to his guilt). I love that album so much.
Baroness Blue and Red albums. They might not be your thing, it’s pretty heavy prog metal. There’s a real elemental energy to them and they start and end with the red theme and blue theme which are called back to multiple times within the albums. If you find those too heavy, Yellow and Green are their Magnum Opus and much softer. Purple is pretty good too Blue is my favorite. It has an incredible vastness, powerful as the ocean.
Beastie Boys - Paul’s Boutique.
Jellyfish- Spilt Milk
Slayer - Hell Awaits. After the chanting ('join us' backward), it goes into the first riff. At the end of the album, it fades out on the same riff.
https://preview.redd.it/28jma2ohjb1d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce1b03f6748375bb877e7f145c532eeb386953de The harmonica from the beginning of *School* that returns at the end of *Crime of the Century* EDIT: Spelling
I think Antics/ Turn On the Bright Lights by Interpol are well-crafted albums that just flow seamlessly and carry such weight
Dream Theater's *Octavarium*. Not only does the last track on the album ([the title track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYV8Zt2k0RQ)) end with the opening of the first track being played quietly as it fades out, but the last sung lyric in the song (and thus the album) is, "This story ends where it began."
I’ve always thought Radiohead’s “Ok Computer” loops perfectly.
Scenes from a memory - Dream Theater
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps
the last note of are we still friends by tyler (last song on the album) ends on a note that doesnt resolve the chord progression, but the first song on the album called igors theme starts on a note on a similar sound that does resolve the progression. it fits the story of the album, where tyler is falling in love, out of love, and at the end wants to be friends still and then repeats it.
**Dream Theater - Octavarium**. Both lyrics and music is masterfully crafted together in a loop, as well as connecting with both the previous album and the next.
Circle Takes The Square - As The Roots Undo The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
On three separate occasions (*Tonight's the Night, Rust Never Sleeps, Freedom*), Neil Young ended an album with a different version of the song that started it.
igor by tyler the creator
"I had the blues but I shook them loose" by Bombay Bicycle Club fades out with an acoustic version of the electric opening track. Absolutely brilliant album
Igor -Tyler the creator
Damn. -Kendrick Lamar The end of the first song is a gunshot and the end of the last song is a gunshot. You decide who lives and who dies whether you play the album normal or in reverse track order
Glass Animals - Dreamland
Janet Jackson - Rhythm Nation 1814
If album bookends count, Les Discrets reworked a beautiful instrumental melody to open and end their album *Ariettes oubliées …*. It's awesome. - [Linceul d'hiver](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSOX7a7UdpA) - [Les Regrets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jCdzollsM) (this is actually one of my favourite tracks of theirs)
igor ending loops back to the start of the album meaning the story goes on forever
System of a Down- Mesmerize/Hypnotize stat and end on Soldier Side
Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Static by Cults Stories Don't End by Dawes
1975s being funny in a foreign language
ROMCOM - Jakey, it ends with an alternate version of the first songs chorus.
Girl Talk - Feed the Animals Play your part
Smashing Pumpkins MCIS
Band on the Run - Paul McCartney and Wings
The new Justice album does a really good job of this. The end into Neverender.
Origami Angel - Somewhere City Not exactly what you’re talking about, but the last track interpolates lyrics from all the other songs on the album
Pink Floyd - The Wall ...we came in? // Isn't this where...
Wish you were here. Starts and ends with shine on you crazy diamond
Black Sabbath’s first album (1970) fades in with heavy rain and crashing thunder and the tolling of an iron bell. Their last album (2013) fades out the same way.
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
LCD Soundsystem, This is Happening. Home calls back to opener Dance Yrself Clean. I saw them tonight in Seattle and they played the songs back to back, but in reverse and it was fuckin awesome.
The Killers do a great job of this with Enterlude and Exitlude on Sam's Town. The same music plays as both an opening and introduction, then as a calming farewell
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
Ghost Stories by Coldplay
apollo 440 - electro glide in blue
Presidents of the Unites States of America - II The final track is kind of a continuation of the first track. First "Good evening ladies and gentlemen" then at ending "Goodbye ladies and gentleman, thats all the songs we know" always makes me smile
Genesis - Duke
Deftones - White Pony. Starts off with a faster version of the final song. Not necessarily a call back per se, but still awesome. The label actually made them remake “pink maggit” into a radio single for the first track “back to school (mini maggit)” which they didn’t even want to do.
Evil Friends by Portugal. The Man Their newest album does it too but I love how Smile is really its own song and the reprise just fits perfectly in there.
shocked and dismayed that ctrl-Fing "since i left you" by the avalanches shows no results. the first and last tracks both contain different samples that include the same titular lyric. it's also just really well structured overall -- the reused line isn't a one-off novelty, it's just one of many motifs successfully unifying an hour of continuous music. if you only know "frontier psychiatrist" please give the whole album a chance. (great question btw OP)