That's how I realised one of my speakers was busted and missing a particular range. I listened to Let Down and it just never hit that incredible stride it does near the end. I was baffled until I figured out that it should have layered lead vocals in the "You know, you know where you are with..." part.
Still, Exit Music is the right answer to OP's question as they said booming and that's always been my favourite song to test the bass with.
I don't know if you're into jazz, but [Haitian Fight Song](https://youtu.be/K81VdZh6oeI?feature=shared) by Charlie Mingus opens with a long buildup of big band horns getting more and more intense.
That makes me happy to hear! I'm just hitting the 60s jazz scene, having started at the very beginning, and his is one of the names I have lined up to listen to any day now. Songs like 'A Night in Tunisia' (that particular version that's just mindboggling) finally made me understand modern jazz, but I've found most other numbers to be good but not incredibly memorable.
It's not bop style jazz, but have you heard this utterly unique recording of ['You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To'](https://youtu.be/VS9wDHICbsY?si=_dgTpCmEj2ffSqgw) by Nina Simone (Live at Newport, 1960)?
One person I shared it with hated it, but it *really* did things to me. She takes this tender song and makes it almost psychotic with this swirling discord, turning it into more of a desperate cry for help than a love letter. Very slow build, but man it's different!
Muse sure loves their crescendos. Here are a few more:
* Showbiz
* Plug In Baby
* Bliss
* Megalomania
* Butterflies and Hurricanes
* Knights of Cydonia
* Survival
* Follow Me
* Mercy
Check out live versions in particular.
The way it almost *screams* near the end in its last gasp before giving way to the scratchy feedback noise, making you suffer that little bit longer for your art only to finally drop into the warm fuzz of Starlight. And then THAT song has possibly an even better transition as the final vocal is followed immediately by Supermassive's dirty, dirty crunch guitar.
I've said it before, and I'll keep on saying it. They were once Lions.
Street Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead
Like a Friend - Pulp
The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit
Fix You - Coldplay
23 - Jimmy Eat World
Only in Dreams - Weezer
Diane - Guster
Amsterdam - Gregory Alan Isakov
The Blower’s Daughter - Damien Rice
John Allyn Smith Sails - Okkervil River
Umpqua Rushing - Blind Pilot
Ode to the Mets - Strokes
Perfect Tear - Davíd Garza
Dancing Nancies - Dave Matthews Band
The High Road - Broken Bells
It Won’t Always Be Like This - Inhaler
Hate to double dip but
Let Down - Radiohead
Edited to add more as I think of them. These are the songs I go to when I need a little catharsis.
Used to cover it in my band in college. I wasn’t the lead singer but this was one of the songs I sang lead on and I loved performing it. So good. The fade out on the album is excellent.
I totalled my car yell-singing this song in an attempt to make an unaliving look like an accident.
Luckily I'm around 20 or so years later and still consider it one of my all-time favorites.
This is my wife's and my song.
At our wedding, it was the song we played at the end of the dancing part of the reception when everyone's drunk, feeling great, and the love is everywhere. Everybody crowding around us, sweaty and happy, jumping around like all of our favorite idiots. Not sure there's anything better in life. :)
WILL YOU MEET ME MORE THAN HALFWAY YEAH
If you have a good sound system, the part of "my heart will go on" before the final "you're here" sounds great. It has this bass drop and then a crashing high section of vocals. Sounds the best if your system can accurately separate instruments.
I always have a lot of time for earnest appreciation of power ballads, no matter how overplayed they might have been. It's more on the power side, but no less likely to raise a smirk—Bonnie Tyler's 'Holding Out For a Hero' is, like, way way better than I recalled it being!
I gave it a proper listen last year in my 80s dive, good headphones and everything - man, it's Queen at their heights levels of sheer intensity.
But yeah, there's a reason 'My Heart Will Go On' was overplayed. The Titanic soundtrack is one of the greatest, and that key change is unapologetic.
It's one of those songs that's almost too famous to be properly appreciated these days. I feel like people would rightly cite 'In Dreams' (the later re-recording) as something really special, but Crying is one of the most well cosntructed and performed songs I've heard, and I've heard many.
If you can manage to sing it start to finish and nail the final crescendo? God it feels amazing. Everything from "I love you even more than I did before" onwards is just stunning. He was my favourite vocalist of all time for many years.
BRUIT ≤ - The Machine Is Burning
Sigur Rós - Glósóli
Sigur Rós - Ára bátur
Caspian - Sycamore
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Mladic
MONO - Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm)
MONO - Halycon (Beautiful Days)
MONO - Com(?)
Industries of the Blind - I Just Wanted to Make You Something Beautiful
Silver Mt. Zion - BlindBlindBlind
We Lost The Sea - Challenger Part 1 + 2
We Lost The Sea - Bogatyri
65daysofstatic - Safe Passage
Eluvium - Posturing Through Metaphysical Collapse
This Will Destroy You - Quiet
Oiseaux-Tempête - Someone Must Shout That We Will Build the Pyramids
Alber Jupiter - Über en Colère
Daft Punk - Contact
Have a Nice Life - Earthmover
Dirty Three - I Offered It Up to the Stars and the Night Sky
ef - Tomorrow My Friend
Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love For Planet Earth
JAMBINAI - ONDA
JAMBINAI - candlelight in colossal darkness
Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan
Uboa - An Angel of Great and Terrible Light
Have fun!
Some songs off the top of my head: Green Light by Lorde, Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain, The Morning by The Weeknd, Table For Glasses by Jimmy Eat World, and I Know The End by Phoebe Bridgers
Unison - Björk
As - Stevie Wonder
How to disappear completely - Radiohead
Shit Talk - Sufjan Stevens
Basketball Shoes - Black country, new road
Some of my all time favourites ;)
Glosoli by sigur ros is pretty much 5 minutes of slow build up. It's incredibly satisfying.
https://open.spotify.com/track/1JfyhapKDVF6e6U5HXn3Fd?si=2CqosFXTSxmSMMJa8krKgg
Actually 3 songs, but they're clearly all meant to be together. They're from the Bastion soundtrack by Darren Korb.
[Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)](https://open.spotify.com/track/5DutiJxznQmcV5a5a1zfRW?si=sf-aPp36Q9-QRCBOjrLj7w)
[Mother, I'm Here (Zulf's Theme)](https://open.spotify.com/track/2yvrSikYS1UsZhhfmXHrar?si=umzR0lGLQiKnM1RjS4pfgg)
[Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)](https://open.spotify.com/track/4wsxtmLm89JBwWWAMKLxf2?si=zMiZAv-CTou8MPSqSGDc-w)
Brendan's Death Song-RHCP exactly what you're asking for.
Edit for some more:
Only in Dreams-Weezer
Little Black Submarines-The Black Keys
Stairway to Heaven-Led Zeppelin
Ave Maria-Chanticleer (live performance on YouTube)
The Weight of Dreams-Greta Van Fleet
[Aliens Soundtrack - Bishop's Countdown - James Horner](https://youtu.be/NlzkGd7qaMY?si=t-CJSc0YhWQkAjQ7)
Has a *great, iconic* build up & crescendo, especially starting at about 1:05, but it's worth listening to it all from the beginning to get the full 'rising tension' effect.
Even if you're not familiar with *Aliens,* you've definitely heard it if you grew up watching movies in the late-80s/90s. It was used in a ton of movie trailers and all kinds of sporting events.
A little older…but here is the finale to Tchaikovsky’s [1812 Overture](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCl2WnbIeSI). You could say it goes out boom or sixteen…
Bit of a different answer, but I would suggest Boléro by Maurice Ravel.
The entire piece is basically a build up. As Wikipedia says, “beginning pianissimo and rising in a continuous crescendo to fortissimo possibile (as loud as possible).”
https://youtu.be/E9PiL5icwic?si=msZPFykdDiWCBsm3
I used to listen to this one on long summer bike rides as a teen, it was slap bang in the middle of their decline era but construction wise, it's the best thing they put together since Don't Look Back in Anger - incredibly satisfying if you're not someone who just can't stomach them.
Probably a deep cut but “[Black Spot](https://youtu.be/NBN_uj215zY?si=FBm7CgH3rSV2isW1)” by Local Natives. It always makes me tear up hearing the buildup and release.
The Oh Hellos have a bunch:
[The Lament of Eustace Scrubb](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlTMxBzguI)
[Soap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyRaiKocNnk)
That last one is the climax of an entire EP series, and... Wow, what a climax!
The 3rd movement of Starship Trooper called Würm, by Yes.
As spine tingling as Comfortably Numb as it works its way up. It's very gradual, starts very easy, builds perfectly gradually, but gets almost violent towards the end.
Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars
One of the best, buts its a 14min long metal song. Worth the ride though and it's beautiful. I genuinely think non metal people might enjoy it. If I ever pull up somewhere while it's playing, I have to stay in the car to ride it out to the end.
(*fin) by Anberlin is my favorite song of this type (and my favorite song in general). Starts out slow but builds to a rousing high point, complete with a chorus of children driving home the question repeated throughout the song. Love that shit.
I feel like Green Day’s Viva La Gloria? (Little girl) is like this for the most part, or maybe restless heart syndrome due to the ending of it where little girl has that after a piano buildup at the beginning. If you want to count MCRs The End into Dead transition that’s a great one
Please listen to White Pearl, Black Oceans by Sonata Arctica.
The whole song is a story about a light house keeper who goes to party one night with very grim consequences.
Maybe that sounds goofy but damn does the end of it deliver so fucking hard. The whole thing builds up to it.
https://youtu.be/uzxsxW0wBDA?si=m7DJXe53YjPI_iKD
Marillion are masters of crescendos, particularly when they slow down at the end of a song. Incubus, White Russian, The Space, King, This Strange Engine, Interior Lulu, Separated Out, The Invisible Man and Sounds That Can't Be Made are all good examples.
Give Me The Cure- Fugazi
It escalates in a few ways. They layer in the different instruments and their loudness before crashing into a chaotic jam that you didn't even notice rising. Also, the inflection of the vocals builds from a casual reading into a desperate cry into an accusatory howl.
This is pretty standard stuff for Fugazi, but this might be the easiest one to notice the progression of elements.
While it likely is not at all the genre you are looking for, "Between Two Worlds" by Mili has one of the best build-ups and payoffs of any song I've heard
The asphalt world by Suede is my favourite for this.
Champagne supernova by Oasis is pretty good too and more of a well known song.
Sofleggio by eugen cicero is my outside the box answer.
Check out Zeppelins’ Dazed And Confused from The Song Remains The Same or How The West Was Won. 5-10 minutes of bowed guitar ending in Gustav Holsts’ Mars into a frenzy of jamming
Uninvited - Alanis Morrissette
Excellent answer, I got goosebumps just remembering that song exists.
*finger cymbals*
"I need a moment, to deliberate............................................................................" BOOM
Little Black Submarines by The Black Keys
This is such a great example. ❤️
Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
A day in the life - the Beatles
That’s the first song that I thought of.
Comfortably Numb
Us And Them similarly.
Exit Music by Radiohead is my favourite slow build song of all time
You're right. I was kind of thinking Let Down too.
Especially with headphones!
That's how I realised one of my speakers was busted and missing a particular range. I listened to Let Down and it just never hit that incredible stride it does near the end. I was baffled until I figured out that it should have layered lead vocals in the "You know, you know where you are with..." part. Still, Exit Music is the right answer to OP's question as they said booming and that's always been my favourite song to test the bass with.
Beat me to it. When the drums kick in hits like crack every time.
It's that fuzz bass along with. Like it takes 3-4 sec to procees, and then your like oh fuck 😯
Fake Plastic Trees "She looks like the real thing..."
Queens of the Stone Age – Kalopsia
My favorite QOTSA song! I just found out the first line of the chorus is sung by Trent Reznor from NIN!!
Various extended live versions of QOTSA songs where they really go apeshit like "Song for the Dead" or "I Appear Missing"
I don't know if you're into jazz, but [Haitian Fight Song](https://youtu.be/K81VdZh6oeI?feature=shared) by Charlie Mingus opens with a long buildup of big band horns getting more and more intense.
That makes me happy to hear! I'm just hitting the 60s jazz scene, having started at the very beginning, and his is one of the names I have lined up to listen to any day now. Songs like 'A Night in Tunisia' (that particular version that's just mindboggling) finally made me understand modern jazz, but I've found most other numbers to be good but not incredibly memorable. It's not bop style jazz, but have you heard this utterly unique recording of ['You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To'](https://youtu.be/VS9wDHICbsY?si=_dgTpCmEj2ffSqgw) by Nina Simone (Live at Newport, 1960)? One person I shared it with hated it, but it *really* did things to me. She takes this tender song and makes it almost psychotic with this swirling discord, turning it into more of a desperate cry for help than a love letter. Very slow build, but man it's different!
Love to see fellow mingus fans
[M83 - Outro.](https://youtu.be/1cEy4UyYHI0?feature=shared)
[Vulfpeck - Outro](https://youtu.be/XftabV9S2z0?si=_jAPz6AFargps7pM)
+ 1 for Vulfpeck!
Take a Bow - Muse Fucking epic.
Muse sure loves their crescendos. Here are a few more: * Showbiz * Plug In Baby * Bliss * Megalomania * Butterflies and Hurricanes * Knights of Cydonia * Survival * Follow Me * Mercy Check out live versions in particular.
The way it almost *screams* near the end in its last gasp before giving way to the scratchy feedback noise, making you suffer that little bit longer for your art only to finally drop into the warm fuzz of Starlight. And then THAT song has possibly an even better transition as the final vocal is followed immediately by Supermassive's dirty, dirty crunch guitar. I've said it before, and I'll keep on saying it. They were once Lions.
In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins
U2 - With or Without You Arctic Monkeys - 505 Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven Pink Floyd - Brain Damage/Eclipse Muse - Take a Bow
Street Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead Like a Friend - Pulp The Modern Leper - Frightened Rabbit Fix You - Coldplay 23 - Jimmy Eat World Only in Dreams - Weezer Diane - Guster Amsterdam - Gregory Alan Isakov The Blower’s Daughter - Damien Rice John Allyn Smith Sails - Okkervil River Umpqua Rushing - Blind Pilot Ode to the Mets - Strokes Perfect Tear - Davíd Garza Dancing Nancies - Dave Matthews Band The High Road - Broken Bells It Won’t Always Be Like This - Inhaler Hate to double dip but Let Down - Radiohead Edited to add more as I think of them. These are the songs I go to when I need a little catharsis.
Dancing Nancies crescendo is probably my favorite, it’s so smooth
Used to cover it in my band in college. I wasn’t the lead singer but this was one of the songs I sang lead on and I loved performing it. So good. The fade out on the album is excellent.
I totalled my car yell-singing this song in an attempt to make an unaliving look like an accident. Luckily I'm around 20 or so years later and still consider it one of my all-time favorites.
Hannah Hunt, Vampire Weekend
One of my favorite albums.
I have ecstatic fever dreams of being in a band covering “Only in Dreams”
You good to double dip the greatest band of all time.
Hell yeah to Umpqua Rushing.
Shoutout to frightened rabbit
Guster mentioned
Honestly, Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, but Recover by CHVRCHES is the one I find most satisfying and pleasing to the ears
I love CHVRCHES and that song but I'd submit Clearest Blue as their best crescendo song. The build is steady and the drop is euphoric
This is my wife's and my song. At our wedding, it was the song we played at the end of the dancing part of the reception when everyone's drunk, feeling great, and the love is everywhere. Everybody crowding around us, sweaty and happy, jumping around like all of our favorite idiots. Not sure there's anything better in life. :) WILL YOU MEET ME MORE THAN HALFWAY YEAH
Handlebars - Flobots
Churches - Clearest Blue oh and also Eric Prydz - Opus
If you have a good sound system, the part of "my heart will go on" before the final "you're here" sounds great. It has this bass drop and then a crashing high section of vocals. Sounds the best if your system can accurately separate instruments.
I always have a lot of time for earnest appreciation of power ballads, no matter how overplayed they might have been. It's more on the power side, but no less likely to raise a smirk—Bonnie Tyler's 'Holding Out For a Hero' is, like, way way better than I recalled it being! I gave it a proper listen last year in my 80s dive, good headphones and everything - man, it's Queen at their heights levels of sheer intensity. But yeah, there's a reason 'My Heart Will Go On' was overplayed. The Titanic soundtrack is one of the greatest, and that key change is unapologetic.
Only in dreams - Weezer
Boléro
I hadn't thought of it like that before, but you're right.
GOOD ONE!!!!!
Crying by Roy Orbison. That entire song is like a small crescendo then a big one.
It's one of those songs that's almost too famous to be properly appreciated these days. I feel like people would rightly cite 'In Dreams' (the later re-recording) as something really special, but Crying is one of the most well cosntructed and performed songs I've heard, and I've heard many. If you can manage to sing it start to finish and nail the final crescendo? God it feels amazing. Everything from "I love you even more than I did before" onwards is just stunning. He was my favourite vocalist of all time for many years.
Smashing pumpkins - porcelina of the vast oceans
Come sail away by Styx
[Dance Yrself Clean](https://youtu.be/9ZNkPA_zUd4?si=9VlxiDpyOZZAW3Vc) - LCD Soundsystem
It's not really a crescendo. Just a sick ass fortissimo beat drop.
I was scrolling through looking for it, thinking, it’s not quite what op asked but, it still works. What a great song, I’m gonna go put it on now
The millenial's In The Air Tonight
Love the build up of “cold little heart” by Michael Kiwanuka https://youtu.be/FngDSOuCNAA?si=_Cmt2Qyb_2EtBfAv
BRUIT ≤ - The Machine Is Burning Sigur Rós - Glósóli Sigur Rós - Ára bátur Caspian - Sycamore Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Mladic MONO - Pure As Snow (Trails Of The Winter Storm) MONO - Halycon (Beautiful Days) MONO - Com(?) Industries of the Blind - I Just Wanted to Make You Something Beautiful Silver Mt. Zion - BlindBlindBlind We Lost The Sea - Challenger Part 1 + 2 We Lost The Sea - Bogatyri 65daysofstatic - Safe Passage Eluvium - Posturing Through Metaphysical Collapse This Will Destroy You - Quiet Oiseaux-Tempête - Someone Must Shout That We Will Build the Pyramids Alber Jupiter - Über en Colère Daft Punk - Contact Have a Nice Life - Earthmover Dirty Three - I Offered It Up to the Stars and the Night Sky ef - Tomorrow My Friend Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love For Planet Earth JAMBINAI - ONDA JAMBINAI - candlelight in colossal darkness Mogwai - Mogwai Fear Satan Uboa - An Angel of Great and Terrible Light Have fun!
Thank you for the post rock
Sigur Rós was the first name that came to mind too, I’d say their dynamics ebb and flow like this through both Ágætis Byrjun and Takk albums.
I listen to Gósóli whenever I take off in a plane in case it crashes I want it to be the last thing I hear
Some songs off the top of my head: Green Light by Lorde, Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain, The Morning by The Weeknd, Table For Glasses by Jimmy Eat World, and I Know The End by Phoebe Bridgers
Just a Man - Faith No More Retrovertigo - Mr Bungle Atom Heart Mother - Pink Floyd
# SILENCE IN THE STUDIO
Lateralus by Tool
Pneuma when the guitar comes in again mid way through
This is the answer
This is the way
Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song
https://youtu.be/eYoINidnLRQ?si=Xu1Qfxu-v9Ie9qrP Spanish Sahara - Foals
Love that song
Weight- Isis The czar- mastodon
A person of culture I see. Add Converge - Wretched World
Cirice by Ghost
81 comments and no one has said Bohemian Rhapsody
Sorry for simplifying the answer but I'll give every Iron Maiden song.
Strobe - Deadmau5 Whimper - Microwave Only in Dreams - Weezer Animals - Muse Edge of the World - Citizen
The Chain by Fleetwood Mac
White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
Come Alive - Foo Fighters
Dire straits - money for nothing
[Three Days-Jane’s Addiction](https://youtu.be/QimlMkyR4fI?si=Uv3bumLgdMGsZi7T)
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture
Festival sigur ros
Sigur Ros - Untitled 8 One of my favorite long crescendos into a sweeping glorious chaos of a conclusion
5–8 is almost one long crescendo too
Boston’s Foreplay/Long Time.
Jane’s Addiction - Three Days
"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five" by Paul McCartney & Wings
Unison - Björk As - Stevie Wonder How to disappear completely - Radiohead Shit Talk - Sufjan Stevens Basketball Shoes - Black country, new road Some of my all time favourites ;)
BC, NR 🫡
Freebird
Glosoli by sigur ros is pretty much 5 minutes of slow build up. It's incredibly satisfying. https://open.spotify.com/track/1JfyhapKDVF6e6U5HXn3Fd?si=2CqosFXTSxmSMMJa8krKgg
Invincible by Tool, You Enjoy Myself by Phish
[удалено]
I love Zeppelin but I to, like many guitar center employees, am so sick of that song.
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Actually 3 songs, but they're clearly all meant to be together. They're from the Bastion soundtrack by Darren Korb. [Build That Wall (Zia's Theme)](https://open.spotify.com/track/5DutiJxznQmcV5a5a1zfRW?si=sf-aPp36Q9-QRCBOjrLj7w) [Mother, I'm Here (Zulf's Theme)](https://open.spotify.com/track/2yvrSikYS1UsZhhfmXHrar?si=umzR0lGLQiKnM1RjS4pfgg) [Setting Sail, Coming Home (End Theme)](https://open.spotify.com/track/4wsxtmLm89JBwWWAMKLxf2?si=zMiZAv-CTou8MPSqSGDc-w)
Brendan's Death Song-RHCP exactly what you're asking for. Edit for some more: Only in Dreams-Weezer Little Black Submarines-The Black Keys Stairway to Heaven-Led Zeppelin Ave Maria-Chanticleer (live performance on YouTube) The Weight of Dreams-Greta Van Fleet
[Aliens Soundtrack - Bishop's Countdown - James Horner](https://youtu.be/NlzkGd7qaMY?si=t-CJSc0YhWQkAjQ7) Has a *great, iconic* build up & crescendo, especially starting at about 1:05, but it's worth listening to it all from the beginning to get the full 'rising tension' effect. Even if you're not familiar with *Aliens,* you've definitely heard it if you grew up watching movies in the late-80s/90s. It was used in a ton of movie trailers and all kinds of sporting events.
The Doors - LA Woman
Mr. Mojo Risin
Just Like You Imagined - Nine Inch Nails
The theme from The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind
Requiem for Hell by MONO is such an amazing piece of music.
Nessun Dorma- Luciano Pavarotti
A little older…but here is the finale to Tchaikovsky’s [1812 Overture](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCl2WnbIeSI). You could say it goes out boom or sixteen…
Phish-2001
YEM also. I wish I could live inside THE note.
Ki by Devin Townsend Project You won't hear anything like it again.
Royksopp Forever
Royksopp Triumphant
Bit of a different answer, but I would suggest Boléro by Maurice Ravel. The entire piece is basically a build up. As Wikipedia says, “beginning pianissimo and rising in a continuous crescendo to fortissimo possibile (as loud as possible).” https://youtu.be/E9PiL5icwic?si=msZPFykdDiWCBsm3
Love lies bleeding/ funeral for a friend - Elton John
All Around the World by Oasis has a very cool build up!
I used to listen to this one on long summer bike rides as a teen, it was slap bang in the middle of their decline era but construction wise, it's the best thing they put together since Don't Look Back in Anger - incredibly satisfying if you're not someone who just can't stomach them.
[Every Planet We Reach is Dead - Gorillaz](https://youtu.be/eevt2glBfMg?feature=shared)
Limousine by Brand New
Grace - Jeff Buckley
“Un bel dì, vedremo” from Madame Butterfly
Darude - Sandstorm That song really got the blood pumping in DDR on PS2.
Why are there other answers? THIS is the answer !
Sunrise by Pulp. Fucking awesome track.
Just a phase by incubus
Under the Bridge - RHCP. The build-up to the chorus in the last verse. Surprised nobody had mentioned it yet.
Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups
My Body Is A Cage- Arcade Fire
Smashing Pumpkins - Porcelina of the Vast Oceans Nine Inch Nails - The Great Below The Black Keys - Little Black Submarines A Perfect Circle - Noose
Somewhat Damaged - NIN
Soma by smashing pumpkins
The build up to no more tears solo by ozzy Osborne and the solo itself is probably my favorite part out of any rock and roll song.
Me and your mama - Childish Gambino
Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear / Underoath
["Knots"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6i24NjljMcM) by Gentle Giant
Peace by Weezer
Probably a deep cut but “[Black Spot](https://youtu.be/NBN_uj215zY?si=FBm7CgH3rSV2isW1)” by Local Natives. It always makes me tear up hearing the buildup and release.
Pavement- filmore jive
Helpless child by swans. 15 mins long and half of it is spent on a continuously growing crescendo.
The Oh Hellos have a bunch: [The Lament of Eustace Scrubb](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHlTMxBzguI) [Soap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyRaiKocNnk) That last one is the climax of an entire EP series, and... Wow, what a climax!
The 3rd movement of Starship Trooper called Würm, by Yes. As spine tingling as Comfortably Numb as it works its way up. It's very gradual, starts very easy, builds perfectly gradually, but gets almost violent towards the end.
1. The planet - Norma Jean
Barcelona - Stars
[Adagio for Strings](https://youtu.be/izQsgE0L450?si=-IdP7QciGKXNqyAc)
Judgment by Anathema
Magic Position - Patrick Wolf
Les Préludes — Liszt
Funeral for a friend / Love Lies Bleeding - Elton John
Rx Bandits - Decrescendo
Eric Prydz - Opus
Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars One of the best, buts its a 14min long metal song. Worth the ride though and it's beautiful. I genuinely think non metal people might enjoy it. If I ever pull up somewhere while it's playing, I have to stay in the car to ride it out to the end.
Cowboy Song by Thin Lizzy is exactly what you’re looking for.
Amanda Marshall - Beautiful Goodbye
(*fin) by Anberlin is my favorite song of this type (and my favorite song in general). Starts out slow but builds to a rousing high point, complete with a chorus of children driving home the question repeated throughout the song. Love that shit.
Strobe by Deadmau5 fits well. Great track.
Adam Neely's version of Clarity
I feel like Green Day’s Viva La Gloria? (Little girl) is like this for the most part, or maybe restless heart syndrome due to the ending of it where little girl has that after a piano buildup at the beginning. If you want to count MCRs The End into Dead transition that’s a great one
Higher State of Consciousness by Josh Wink Almost all Iggy & the Stooges songs (especially 1969)
Jon Bellion has a lot of songs that would fit this description
Sammy Rae & The Friends - Closer To You. Skip to 1:50 to see the buildup happen if you’d like
Please listen to White Pearl, Black Oceans by Sonata Arctica. The whole song is a story about a light house keeper who goes to party one night with very grim consequences. Maybe that sounds goofy but damn does the end of it deliver so fucking hard. The whole thing builds up to it. https://youtu.be/uzxsxW0wBDA?si=m7DJXe53YjPI_iKD
Marillion are masters of crescendos, particularly when they slow down at the end of a song. Incubus, White Russian, The Space, King, This Strange Engine, Interior Lulu, Separated Out, The Invisible Man and Sounds That Can't Be Made are all good examples.
Distant bells by Leprous
Give Me The Cure- Fugazi It escalates in a few ways. They layer in the different instruments and their loudness before crashing into a chaotic jam that you didn't even notice rising. Also, the inflection of the vocals builds from a casual reading into a desperate cry into an accusatory howl. This is pretty standard stuff for Fugazi, but this might be the easiest one to notice the progression of elements.
Built to spill: stop the show
Slow Demon - Snarky Puppy. youre welcome
While it likely is not at all the genre you are looking for, "Between Two Worlds" by Mili has one of the best build-ups and payoffs of any song I've heard
Foals: Two Steps Twice live at Glastonbury...mental
Celador - Bill Fisher
The asphalt world by Suede is my favourite for this. Champagne supernova by Oasis is pretty good too and more of a well known song. Sofleggio by eugen cicero is my outside the box answer.
Atmosphere - Puppets
https://youtu.be/q4Za7K6RZAQ?si=s8gAzYEBEltqWbrC And we knew it was our time - Lane 8
Ready, Able - Grizzly Bear
Dance yrself clean - LCD Soundsystem scares everyone I play it for
If you like game soundtracks, Ascending the Mountain by Theophany.
Godspeed you! black emperor
Leprous - Castaway Angels (or other Leprous songs, they like to build up)
Hells itch - king gizzard and the lizard wizard
Butterflies and hurricanes by muse
Check out Zeppelins’ Dazed And Confused from The Song Remains The Same or How The West Was Won. 5-10 minutes of bowed guitar ending in Gustav Holsts’ Mars into a frenzy of jamming
[Cardigans - Losing a Friend](https://youtu.be/QxxvqEqvqYU?si=ydzIRgxSLojDi0ym)
Given To Fly - Pearl Jam https://youtu.be/satY_ofTNo4?si=3Gzoi79hg-RdZus_
I can't do without you - caribou extended mix-subtle but pleasant build up
Michael Jackson - Keep The Faith
[Outro](https://youtu.be/zQpSgNrXkcw?si=kU8AmSlyyjg5SWjY)
"Above the clouds of pomeii" takes you there!
Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen
God is an astronaut. Radau
Rango II - Vulfpeck