Track 10 Theory: We Ranked Every Album Closer and Started a Fan War

Anybody can open an album. You front-load the single, you hook them in ninety seconds, everybody goes home happy. But the closer? The closer is where a band tells you who they actually are — after the fireworks, after the radio plays, after the budget for big gestures ran out.

So we did the thing everyone does at 2 a.m. and no one should do publicly: we ranked every Last Straw album closer, worst to first. The group chat is already on fire. Let's go.

6. 'Static' — from Static (2015)

The debut's closer is a moody, reverb-soaked experiment that we loved making and, frankly, loved explaining to confused listeners even more. It's ambitious. It's also four minutes of atmosphere where a landing should've been.

Fan verdict: One Reddit thread from 2019 titled 'Does anyone actually finish Static?' has 200+ comments and no consensus.

Earns its spot? Barely. Points for guts.

5. 'Halfway Home' — from Long Way Around (2017)

A road-worn mid-tempo number about being tired in a way you can't nap off. It's grown on us over the years — what felt like a palate cleanser at the time now sounds like a thesis statement we didn't know we were writing.

Fan verdict: A TikTok edit set to this song recently racked up two million views, so a whole generation now associates it with golden-hour highway footage. We'll take it.

Earns its spot? Yes, but it's holding on by its fingernails.

4. 'Paper Kingdom' — from Neon Hymnal (2019)

The most divisive closer in the catalog. Half our audience hears a devastating slow burn about building something that won't last. The other half hears four minutes of a band refusing to write a chorus. Both camps are correct.

Fan verdict: 'This song made me call my dad' is a real YouTube comment with 1,400 likes. Hard to argue with that ROI.

Earns its spot? Absolutely, and the fact that people still fight about it proves it.

3. 'Come Down Slow' — from Wildfire Season (2021)

Written in a borrowed house outside Asheville during a week when nobody could sleep, this one closes the record like a long exhale. No big finale, no string section — just a band playing quietly and meaning it.

Fan verdict: Perennially the top-voted answer to 'most underrated Last Straw song' in every fan poll we've ever run.

Earns its spot? Easily. It's the closer that taught us quiet can be a weapon.

2. 'The Long Goodbye' — from Burn the Map (2023)

Six and a half minutes, three movements, and a final chorus that detonates on purpose. This is the closer where everything the album promised finally gets paid in full. It's also become the de facto encore on tour, which tells you everything about how fans received it.

Fan verdict: The live version from the Red Rocks stream still gets quoted in comment sections like scripture.

Earns its spot? It was the template for what we now think a closer should be. It only misses the top spot because...

1. 'Last Straw' — from Last Straw (2024)

Yeah. The title track closes the record that shares its name, and if that sounds like a gimmick, listen to it once and get back to us. It's the song where the whole story of this band — the frustration, the perseverance, the decision to keep going when quitting was the sensible move — gets said out loud for the first time.

Fan verdict: At every show on the current run, the room sings the final line back at us louder than we sing it. There is no higher compliment in this business.

Earns its spot? It's the mission statement the whole exercise was about. First place, no appeals.

So What Did We Learn?

Looking at the list, the pattern is obvious: our best closers aren't the loudest songs — they're the truest ones. The album closer is the last impression, the final handshake, the thing that plays while someone decides whether to start the record over or put on something else.

Now it's your turn. Rank them yourselves, fight about it in the comments, and send us your list. We'll read every single one. We might even change our minds. (We won't. 'Static' at the bottom is non-negotiable.)