Rolling Stone Reader's List: Best Final Album

This week, Rolling Stone asked their readers to pick the best final albums in an artists career. This, of course, severely narrowed the field as the only eligible recordings would be from groups that have broken up or solo artists that had passed on and it even left the Rolling Stone editors needing to disqualify a few named albums. Both the Velvet Underground's Loaded and the Doors' L.A. Woman were removed as they technically were not final albums.

The winner, though, by a large margin, was the Beatles' Abbey Road. This alone could confuse some as the last Beatles studio album was Let It Be, but Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together. Let it Be was just released last as the group had been unhappy with the sessions and didn't allow it to hit the streets until some retooling by Phil Spector.

The list:

1) Abbey Road - Beatles
2) Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix Experience
3) In Utero - Nirvana
4) Sublime - Sublime
5) Pink Moon - Nick Drake
6) Closer - Joy Division
7) Down on the Upside - Soundgarden
8) Synchronicity - Police
9) Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo
10) Reinventing the Steel - Pantera
11) The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory - Tupac Shakur
12) Uprising - Bob Marley and the Wailers
13) Strangeways Here We Come - Smiths
14) Grace - Jeff Buckley
15) Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel