It’s been a  while since I’ve produced a top ten list, but I’m back, and again jumping into that dangerous category of music.

So why song outros? Everyone has a song in their collection that they remember because of the outro. Even if the song is completely shit up until that point, it doesn’t matter, as the outro will arrive and punch you in the face, make you scream ‘what the fuck’, force you to repetitively punch the table with your fist yelling ‘yes, yes, yes!’, or sometimes it will just make you tilt your head back and soak it all in.

Ok I’m over the wank now, hear are ten outros that I adore. Also, the list is in no particular order, as I found it pretty pointless ranking them. Maybe YOU can decide.

Radiohead - Planet Telex

The first song from ‘The Bends’, it probably isn’t ranked highly amongst the radiohead fans elite squad, but I’m sure they all understand that the delay effect on the piano, and Jonny Greenwood’s guitar riff at the end of this song, puts you in an uncontrollable state.

This is really quite funny, but this is a comment from a youtube user about the song:

“I was really depressed the whole day today. i turned my ipod on and started the album, as soon as the guitar came in i got the happiest feeling of my life. it was an overpowering tingling sensation of joy, i cryed for the first time in months, and the 1st time ever out of happiness. the really amazing thing is i didnt even like radiohead that much before.”

That fucking guitar riff I tell you.

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Muse - Cave
It’s a pretty weak song on the album in my opinion. The album being ‘Showbiz’, you know, the good old raw album released in the 90s. THE NINETIES. Anyway, the piano work and final build up of this outro is brilliant. Although fans of the Hullabaloo dvd have to put up with Mat (being the guitarist and pianist of this band) playing the outro on gutar. GUITAR. there is a piano behind you, you complete tool.

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Ratatat - Lex
Definately the first “fuck yeah this shit’s awesome” track on their album ‘Classics’. This song makes you feel like you’ve just gone on an epic adventure involving getting your arm chopped off and saving a princess. Anyway, the outro gives you that end of a film feeling where the main character is limping off into the distance on some deserted street, but turns around and just stares back at the camera. Actually that’s not really what I think of everytime i listen to this song, just this time.

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The Beatles - Strawberry Fields
George Harrison saved this song. In fact, it may have been the best thing he EVER did. I mean you have to listen to John Lennon moan about some strawberry fields crap, but then suddenly this hardcore ringo drumbeat with a string section happens, then this simple but incredibly catchy guitar solo gets pumped out by George, and ends with a sitar . Stop it George!

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Pink Floyd - Time
You would get the impression that Pink Floyd know what they’re doing,, and with a song like Time it clearly shows why. Except after such a great intro ( I would argue that the intro to this song is better than the outro, but its an outro list i’m doing, so go put a block of cheese in the microwave), brilliant lyrics and arguably the best guitar solo David Gilmour did. Anyway, the way the song goes back into ‘breathe’ is just so seamless and absolutely high five worthy. I mean surely David and Roger did a few skin slaps after they had that idea.

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Air - All I Need

All I Need is a beautiful song and the piano breakdown at the end with such a soothing electrnoic melody coming over the top makes me fall asleep and think about wonderful things; such as clouds turning into ice cream and just falling from the sky, with everyone holding out massive cones to catch a scoop.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers - Funky Monks

I remember the first time I came across this outro. It was the biggest ‘What the fuck, this is off the tap’, I mean it really didnt go with the rest of the song at all. If you need any further explanation, I do like to prepare myself for a ‘robot walk dance exit’ of whichever room I’m in now that I hear this outro.

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Tool - The Grudge
I’m not the world’s biggest tool fan. I don’t ride the Tool train. I like to listen to them when i’m in a state of mind such as ‘gotta tidy my room, time for TOOL’. Anyway ‘The Grudge’ is a song on epic proportions. I mean it goes for 8:34 seconds. That’s epic in my books. Do you wanna know what’s more epic? The outro. (How did you guess?). The drumming at the end is probably what gives me the ticket. This is definately an example of ‘punching the desk repetitively screaming YES YES YES’ type of outro.

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Blur - Chemical World

Probably the most ridiculous outro in this list. They pretty much take you away from britpop straight into a western bar with one of those big barn dances, where it just keeps getting faster, and faster, and faster…

Unforunately, the video clip found on the almight ‘youtube’ doesn’t showcase the outro I’m raving about. This is very sad as it is defiantely one of my favourites in this list. It’s definately worth having a hunt through your cd collection to see if the album ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ pops up.

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The Mars Volta - L’via L’viaquez
Again, the piano is the key ingrediant of this intro. But it’s brilliant, the way the piano and guitar work with each other is like ham and cheese. A nice way to end a song that has basically slapped you in the face with a piece of salmon for the last 8 minutes (the album version that is).