The importance of a record’s final track might have dimmed in the age of streaming, but our run-through of readers’ and critics’ favourite closing songs proves they still hold a special kind of power

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Last week we asked for your favourite album closers, and received so many responses that we decided to devote a hefty chunk of the newsletter to the topic. The closing track is a mysterious thing, often unlike the rest of the album that precedes it. It can be a place for experimentation, or at worse self-indulgence: it’s usually where artists place their longest, loosest tracks. But get that epic closer right and it suddenly turns your album Technicolor. Then there are the hushed album closers, a rare moment of pared-back intimacy between artist and listener. There are the wags who put the hit single at the end of the album (see The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset). And of course there is the (largely now defunct) hidden track at the end of the album – a gimmick, sure but also a reminder of the playfulness that that closing spot inspires.

In the age of streaming, when the concept of the album itself is under threat, the closing track might not have the same aura it once had, but artists still recognise that it can serve as a exclamation mark – look at Beyoncé’s triumphant Amen at the end of Cowboy Carter. To celebrate the closing track we asked Guardian music critics to share their favourites, before readers get their say …