Best First Side Closer

You & I is perfection. No doubt. If it weren't for Seaside Rendezvous, I might have gone with that one.

Speaking of the worst though, I'd have to go with Let Me Entertain You. That begs to be an opener, not a closer. Such a poor tracklisting on Jazz.

i agree with most of what you've said - but not the section i've highlighted. sorry, but it's just plain impossible to think of the album in that way. even if you consider the concept idea of "attending an Opera", there's just no way, the themes of the songs are too disparate to even appear in the same opera:
♦ Verbal abuse aimed at a business manager
♦ a love for fast cars
♦ sci-fi time travel
♦ bible floods
♦ two love songs, and
♦ reminiscing about being on holiday

if you could create an opera with those songs' subject matter - i guarantee you almost no-one would go see it.

I always thought "Mustapha" was a great "F You!" opener. :-)

Honestly, I'm surprised at how few of the songs make strong choices for closing a side to an album. I said it before, but Let Me Entertain You is poorly placed. As is Now I'm Here. Lyrically, I just think they should belong as openers for either side. But what makes a good first side closer anyway? Like pg, I've never had to think this way.

Me too, from the cassette era  

I think generally speaking the "side closers" are upbeat, positive, and/or fun. Usually. With some interesting exceptions.

My Fairy King is probably the main outlier and does something very deliberately for that first album, which to that point has been mostly heavy, if ornate, rock. MFK takes the listener somewhere else, displays a different sensibility, and leaves the listener hanging with a promise that there's more intriguing stuff to come. In fact it almost ends the side on a question mark.

MFK aside, on the 70s albums the last track on side one often offers a less emotional, more straightforward feel in contrast to a complex preceding song, which has sometimes been the centrepiece of the side (or even the album). I think the straight rocking NIH after the (almost) song cycle of Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley is the best example, but there's also the easygoing You and I after the epic Millionaire Waltz, and Fight from the Insde after the emotional double-whammy of All Dead and Spread Your Wings. Loser in the End similarly acts as a heavy palate cleanser after four tracks that have been on the whole very structured, textured and emotional. (Almost, in fact, the inverse set up of Queen 1.)

The 80 albums have more of a 'set of pop songs' arrangement, with less light and shade, but I'd say MOTP after Hard Life does a very 70s ish job, shaking things loose and dancing away the heartache. Sort of. While Action This Day if anything is the inverse of this, being a subtly rockier proposition after four pretty straight up dance songs.

On the whole though I think Side Ones tend to end with a loose/ positive/ rousing song, rather than risk entering the 'intermission' on any sort of downer or uncertainty. Invisible Man, FWBF, LMEY.. Ride the Wild Wind is upbeat and energetic but also has a strange, dreamy, unresolved feel. Perhaps the most atypical side closer since MFK, and perhaps deliberately so.

MFK - by a mile (for me)

one thing about seeing the "closers" in a list like that:
I stand by my comments (elsewhere on these boards) - the list bears out (by and large) what a turdfest the 80s output really was.

I would've thought Dead On Time would be a better closer to Jazz than Entertain You – the "You're dead!" shout and thunderclap ending just scream closer.

Really? A turdfest? Come on mate. Surely you don't mean that!

I've thought that too and then literally just swapping LMEY with DOT. But I don't think Queen would've done this as no other Queen album has two songs open both sides written by the same member. In Jazz's case it could've been Mustapha and LMEY but judging by that rule it wouldn't have been considered.

I personally believe songs with long fade outs don't work as well as side closers especially first side ones. I'm almost expecting something else to happen and it doesn't.

My Fairy King, Seaside Rendezvous and The Kiss personally are my favourite ones as they end on one note.

I think it's stupid Now I'm Here closing a side (especially that even before the album was released it opened Queen's live shows) but then I can't work out what a better alternative is on Sheer Heart Attack.

The Loser In The End, Fight From The Inside, Action This Day and The Invisible Man I personally feel don't work as closers either just by the type of songs they are.

I think The Game is a good album, but disappointing compared to their 70's output. The next four 80's albums are my least favorite, but I would consider them to be mostly a sow's ear rather than a complete turdfest, as each of these four albums has at least three very good or excellent songs (IMHO).

I generally deslike fade outs... C'mon, you're a musician, think of a proper ending.
Most of the times a fade out is simply a lack of musical creativity (not talking single edits here, which are only edited for radio time limits)

Although there are some exceptions when I'm OK with a fade out, and that is when a fade out has a meaning, and thus is well-thought.
Take for example 'The Show Must Go On', it fades out on repeating 'Go on go on go on...'.
That's of course deliberately and works perfect.

Hahaha! That made me laugh.

I am obviously one of the rare Queen fans that prefer the 80s output. I just have such huge love for The Miracle and Innuendo as I feel they are amazing albums.