“The End.”/“Dead!”
By: My Chemical Romance
Off the album: The Black Parade (2006)
    Believe me, it kills me to reveal to the world that I not only like My Chemical Romance, but that I do solely because The Black Parade is simply one of the most entertaining albums I have ever listened to. A concept album about a man’s looking back onto his life after his death, there are several nods to classic rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Queen and David Bowie. At the end of the opening song, “The End” (which coincidentally sounds a lot like “In the Flesh,” the opening track of Pink Floyd’s The Wall…), a flatline is heard, which extends into the second track, “Dead!” The first song, since it’s about the main character facing his inevitable death, is very dramatic and slow, but the immediate start, fast pace and joyous sound of the second song is one of the most polarized transitions I’ve ever heard.

 

“We Will Rock You”/“We Are the Champions”
By: Queen (duh)
Off the album: News of the World (1977)
    Alright, now we’re getting into the classics. Although many 20-somethings like myself feel like quacking once hearing these two songs together, those of older generations have heard these two songs connected for decades. What’s interesting about these songs is that they don’t truly transition into each other like how the Avenged Sevenfold songs blend into each other or how My Chemical Romance immediately starts up a new song. Still, it’s borderline illegal to play one song without the other and we have both Brian May and Freddie Mercury to thank for two of the greatest arena rock songs of all time.

 

“Heartbreaker”/“Living Loving Maid”
By: Led Zeppelin
Off the album: Led Zeppelin II (1969)
    Now digging into the blues, the transition of these two songs is similar to the My Chemical Romance Songs. “Heartbreaker” begins with a slow, bluesy beat that is essentially held the entire song, save for Jimmy Page’s rocking improvised (yes, I said improvised!) solo during most of the second half of the song. For a moment after the solo, the song returns to the slow tempo, but then the guys said “wait a minute, we’re Led freaking Zeppelin, let’s rock the hell out!” After only a single beat from the end of “Heartbreaker,” the much louder and faster “Living Loving Maid” kicks in. Like the Queen example above, a likely punishment for playing these songs separately from one another could be that you don’t deserve to listen to music ever again.

“Brain Damage”/“Eclipse”
By: Pink Floyd
Off the album: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
    Off the greatest album of all time (yeah, I said it), this pair of songs is also one of my favorite endings to an album. Based on the mental illness issues of former band mate Syd Barrett, “Brain Damage” is a quiet, but emotional, song. Aside from an inspiring choir that appears at times, it sounds like the song is going to end on a depressing note (especially while hearing a guy laugh maniacally), but a few bass drum hits leads the band into transitioning to a beautiful…umm…eclipse of sound to end the album with an uplifting barrage of vocals, keyboards, guitars and drums.

 

"The Medley"
By: The Beatles
Off the album: Abbey Road (1969)
    Ha! You think I made a grammatical error by not putting quotes around The Medly! In fact, I’m kind of cheating here because The Medley is actually a group of eight songs featured at the end of the album, and they all transition into each other beautifully. The grouping of “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End” is 16 minutes of some of the best songwriting you will ever hear. Songs not only transition perfectly even if they don’t flow into each other, but several themes are repeated as well, making The Medley a beautiful and complete symphony on its own.