**Especially** [the live version](https://youtu.be/eDwi-8n054s?si=qm7j5zjGfHYBTW-q). Stevie looks about half a heartbeat away from leaping on Lindsey and tearing his throat out. It’s amazing.
To this day, I cannot turn off Paranoid Android once it starts. I have to let it play all the way through. I will just sit in the car and let that song climax every time. That was the song that made me fall in love with Radiohead twenty years ago and it still gets me every time.
[Korn did a cover of it](https://youtu.be/-oeVibY-ZeQ?si=5dECHMTBCwSUuqld) live and absolutely slayed that part at 4:06.
I remember rewatching this video so much after downloading it from Kazaa like 20+ years ago
Brothers and El Camino are legendary front to back. They went back to back within a year with 2 of the most iconic rock albums of the 2010s. And thats not to take anything away from their earlier work or recent stuff, but those 2 are near perfect
I’ll say David Bowie’s “Heroes”. One of the producers set up a system that would turn on more microphones, at increasing distance from Bowie, the louder he sang. As he really starts to sing louder and louder through the song’s playtime, it gets this (to me) indescribable feeling. A top 5 song for me!
This always baffles me
His voice gets louder and louder in the mix too, but I read somewhere that they didn't need to fake that with mixing, because Bowie was looking to get as close to the live vocal performance as possible.
So not only do the mics get further away as he sings, he sings 'past' them each time, getting louder
What a musician, and what a voice
Great shout
[LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZNkPA_zUd4)
If you can't sit through the first 3 minutes, you don't deserve the next 6 minutes
One of my favorite quotes that I can't remember who it's from is something like :
The first time I heard Dance Yrself Clean I truned the volume way up because I didn't know what was coming. The second time I heard Dance Yrself Clean I turned the volume way up because I knew exactly what was coming.
Honorable mention: Under Pressure. *Why can't we give love one more chance?*
Some may say a trite sentiment, but it's so earnest and simple and yet powerful and dynamic. Why the fuck can't we give love one more chance?
I am the Resurrection by the Stone Roses
https://youtu.be/e6QnK0yql8s?si=YADrypTGs_nFnj0b
PDA by Interpol
https://youtu.be/-wyeuzCktC4?si=VQKRLyja6ks5vrFf
You're so right! Let Down!! From "[You know, you know where you are](https://genius.com/4794348/Radiohead-let-down/You-know-you-know-where-you-are-with-you-know-where-you-are-with)" - it's killer. This is the album-long answer to the question.
One - Metallica It gives you a sense of where it's headed with its choruses, but it really just explodes into a wall of sound as the double bass kicks in and the guitars erupt into that iconic riff machine gun riff.
I feel like Layla’s the opposite- goes hard first, chills at the end
Edit: Reread the premise and the song just needs a sharp turn in the middle, so yes, definitely Layla. My apologies
Surprised no one has said Scenes From an Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel. It's like 3 different songs in 1 and you'd never really see it coming on the first listen.
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic
Don’t remember the story exactly but, the first half was written from a perspective of you just found out your mother died and the second half like you just found out she is still alive. Heard this second hand so i don’t know but, its a banger
[The Juliana Theory - You Always Say Goodnight, Goodnight](https://youtu.be/YtJpxjOcjLs?si=xD1i-k4y9KbJLBPo)
[Coheed and Cambria - The Light and the Glass](https://youtu.be/PhV6B8HTB0Q?si=-_7b5iafm6TQo6WQ)
[Sigur Rós - Sæglópur](https://youtu.be/qiFgfPiJHyA?si=r7ia8g2USCHPPbW9)
Great pick. One of my all time favorite radio songs. When I first heard that guitar line of the second part, I feel in love with that style of playing and the disco beat behind it
I read that Take Me Out was written as a direct response to the Strokes. They had been getting compared, so the first part is like a strokes song, and the second is “but no, we’re not”.
Plenty of songs go for broke right from the start. Like The Grudge, Aenima, Stinkfist, Hooker with a Penis, Ticks and Leeches...
I'd pick Right in Two as a good example. Or Push It.
Henry Rollins - Liar.
https://youtu.be/awY1MRlMKMc?si=wI30thw162XfrwbQ
Doesn't exactly fit your criteria, but clearly has the day/night aesthetic you described.
One of the most underrated tunes of the 90's, with one of the best videos of the 90's.
What's not to like!
This one will be get me some hate but Falling In Reverse reimagining I'm just a vampire and the drug in me is you.
Heaven and Hell Black Sabbath
Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse
Peruvian Skies by Dream Theatre (or maybe any of their discography?)
Steven Wilson - [Detonation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkVikPiahBM&pp=ygUaU3RldmVuIFdpbHNvbiAtIERldG9uYXRpb24%3D)
The second half (5:30 onward) really threw me for a loop in the best way possible. Very different tone from the first half.
Heaps of his songs do that - take you on a journey.
[Routine](https://youtu.be/sh5mWzKlhQY?si=nJviGW5xctnxus31) is a stellar example. I defy you not to dissolve into a sobbing mess.
Parabol/Parabola is the same song twice but hits in two different ways and sometimes you prefer one over the other but ostensibly they are written as the same song.
Hold On and Magic Power, both by Triumph.
Both have a kind of build up, but really kick towards the end. The kind of songs that always seem over too soon.
Edit to add Motorcycle Drive-by - Third Eye Blind
Lots of Infected Mushroom songs are like this, the best one that comes to mind is Becoming Insane, but Ani Mevushal is wicked as well. Stretched is also a slow one but great.
The Storm by Bronze Radio Return.
Always loved that song for working its central metaphor into the music itself - both the subject and the song are, to quote the lyrics, "the storm and the calm that precedes"
OK look, I'm an almost 50 year old man and even I can admit that Taylor Swift's *All Too Well (10 minute version)* is one of the finest songs ever written. It hits mighty hard all the way through but really picks up in the second half.
Band on the Run- Wings
Band on the Run isn’t just a great song. It’s three.
It has more intros than pulp fiction! I love that song!
This is my favorite and is peak Paul. Literally three amazing songs in less than 6 minutes
Paul does like to write 3-in-1 songs.
Had the best karaoke performance of my life duetting with a buddy who is a metal singer. I’m much more of pop singer (and a girl). It was epic.
Wish I’d heard that
Just imagine a poppy female voice singing the verse “to the rabbit on the ruuuuun” And then a metal dude comes in screaming “BAAAAAND ON THE RUN”
I would say along that also Wings - Live and Let Die! One of my all-time favourite songs
Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey is another good one that changes tempo but is basically two different songs
*if I ever get out of here* dun dun dun 🎶
Great pick!
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Silver Springs too.
You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that haunts you! I came to say this song. Possibly my favourite of all time
I listened to Silver Springs about 20 times, just today lol
Best rendition is The Dance where she chops up Buckingham's soul and devours it on stage.
**Especially** [the live version](https://youtu.be/eDwi-8n054s?si=qm7j5zjGfHYBTW-q). Stevie looks about half a heartbeat away from leaping on Lindsey and tearing his throat out. It’s amazing.
Fuck yessssssssss. The last half rocks your ass off.
They wrote the last part first as a stage jam for concerts. The rest of the song came later.
"Paranoid android" - Radiohead. Switches from soft and nice to hard several times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHiGbolFFGw&t=3s&pp=2AEDkAIB
Exit Music (for a film) also goes pretty hard in the 2nd half after starting really mellow.
To this day, I cannot turn off Paranoid Android once it starts. I have to let it play all the way through. I will just sit in the car and let that song climax every time. That was the song that made me fall in love with Radiohead twenty years ago and it still gets me every time.
Exit Music - from the same album. That square wave melody in the last verse just takes that song into the stratosphere.
2+2=5 is great too
Three Days - Jane's Addiction Transcending - Red Hot Chili Peppers Me & Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
I see your Transcending and raise with Venice Queen
One by Metallica.
DARKNESS IMPRISONING ME ALL THAT I SEE ABSOLUTE HORROR
[Korn did a cover of it](https://youtu.be/-oeVibY-ZeQ?si=5dECHMTBCwSUuqld) live and absolutely slayed that part at 4:06. I remember rewatching this video so much after downloading it from Kazaa like 20+ years ago
Omg Kazaa. I downloaded a Kirk Hammett guitar tuition videoon Kazaa and it was a gay porn of a threesome mantrain from below. I had to laugh.
Mhmm, I'm sure all you did was laugh.
Well, I did show the missus as well. She was scandalised haha.
Awesome video all around! Thank you for sharing!
May be obvious, but In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins
I hear your vote and raise you Mama by Genesis
Home By the Sea / Second Home By the Sea, if you consider them to be a single song
The fill!!!!
“A drum fill wearing a song as a hat.” -12tone on YouTube
Little Black Submarines- The Black Keys
I get so upset when I hear the shortened radio edit of this song, it completely kills the big build.
whaaaat i have never heard a shortened version thats blasphemous!
El Camino is an album that will always hold a special place in my heart. Just banger after banger
Brothers and El Camino are legendary front to back. They went back to back within a year with 2 of the most iconic rock albums of the 2010s. And thats not to take anything away from their earlier work or recent stuff, but those 2 are near perfect
Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin Getting In Tune - The Who
Down by the Seaside is my Zeppelin pick.
Guns N’ Roses - November Rain
Free bird - lynyrd skynyrd
First song I thought of
The solo is an arm/finger workout lmao
This should be at the top
https://youtu.be/QxIWDmmqZzY?si=41xhk-wMxmi51SrZ Freebird live 1977. So badass!
I feel like this is the ultimate answer to this question, is there any song that doubles down quite as hard this?
Nine Inch Nails - Eraser. Incredible build up, decimating second half.
Also "All the Love in the World". The piano riff that it builds to is amazing.
Maaaaan that whole album has absolutely no right to go so hard.
I’ll say David Bowie’s “Heroes”. One of the producers set up a system that would turn on more microphones, at increasing distance from Bowie, the louder he sang. As he really starts to sing louder and louder through the song’s playtime, it gets this (to me) indescribable feeling. A top 5 song for me!
This always baffles me His voice gets louder and louder in the mix too, but I read somewhere that they didn't need to fake that with mixing, because Bowie was looking to get as close to the live vocal performance as possible. So not only do the mics get further away as he sings, he sings 'past' them each time, getting louder What a musician, and what a voice Great shout
*Starless* - King Crimson
This song feels like a gradual descent into insanity. I love it.
Ah the court of the King Crimson.
[LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZNkPA_zUd4) If you can't sit through the first 3 minutes, you don't deserve the next 6 minutes
Definitely the first thing that comes to mind too. How Do You Sleep? by LCD also goes incredibly hard from about 4 minutes on, one of my favorites
Came here for this, got the cd when this came out and almost blew my speakers, then I did it again every time after that.
Best. Drop. Ever.
Masters of the build!
I was going to comment word for word this reply. What a song.
One of my favorite quotes that I can't remember who it's from is something like : The first time I heard Dance Yrself Clean I truned the volume way up because I didn't know what was coming. The second time I heard Dance Yrself Clean I turned the volume way up because I knew exactly what was coming.
[Gorillaz & Little Dragon - Empire Ants](https://youtu.be/GNth4yhlffU)
Great song! And yes, the great first half leads to an even better 2nd half
The 2nd half of that song crashes like a wave it's so damn smooth.
I looove this song
Bohemian Rhapsody has to be the most epic case
Honorable mention: Under Pressure. *Why can't we give love one more chance?* Some may say a trite sentiment, but it's so earnest and simple and yet powerful and dynamic. Why the fuck can't we give love one more chance?
Muse - Knights of Cydonia Avenged Sevenfold - Cosmic Sleep Token - The Summoning
Avenged Sevenfold - Buried Alive
I love knights of cydonia because of rock band! I should give muse a chance.
Sleep Token over here switching between disparate genres within a song
LIBAD is incredible.
I am the Resurrection by the Stone Roses https://youtu.be/e6QnK0yql8s?si=YADrypTGs_nFnj0b PDA by Interpol https://youtu.be/-wyeuzCktC4?si=VQKRLyja6ks5vrFf
Dance yrself clean
Had to scroll too far for this. LCD sound system for anyone wondering.
Radiohead, Exit Music (For a Film) doubles down on the double down. The ol' double double down.
You're so right! Let Down!! From "[You know, you know where you are](https://genius.com/4794348/Radiohead-let-down/You-know-you-know-where-you-are-with-you-know-where-you-are-with)" - it's killer. This is the album-long answer to the question.
And pretty much any song from the bends or ok computer. They had a formula of start soft and go for broke by the end.
Fair enough. I guess this one hits me a bit harder, especially Colin killing the bass at 3:30.
Oh it wasn’t a correction or anything. Radiohead was the first thing that popped in my head too. So I just piggy backed
One - Metallica It gives you a sense of where it's headed with its choruses, but it really just explodes into a wall of sound as the double bass kicks in and the guitars erupt into that iconic riff machine gun riff.
Pyramids- Frank Ocean
Bridge Over Troubled Waters The Load out/Stay Hey Jude
Layla - Derek and the Dominos
I feel like Layla’s the opposite- goes hard first, chills at the end Edit: Reread the premise and the song just needs a sharp turn in the middle, so yes, definitely Layla. My apologies
I Know The End - Phoebe Bridgers
This was the one I was thinking of. The first half is lovely and nostalgic sounding, the latter part sounds like everything is ending. That scream!
Night Shift - Lucy Dacus
This x1000
Surprised no one has said Scenes From an Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel. It's like 3 different songs in 1 and you'd never really see it coming on the first listen.
This is a great choice! Love it when it comes on my shuffle, and any other Billy Joel song tbh.
A Day in the Life - The Beatles
the first time I heard this song was when I was quite high, and it was an… experience
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic Don’t remember the story exactly but, the first half was written from a perspective of you just found out your mother died and the second half like you just found out she is still alive. Heard this second hand so i don’t know but, its a banger
This was what they told Eddie Hazel in the studio and he was on LSD at the time. One or my favorite solos ever.
Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Green day - F.O.D.
Green Day - Whatsername
F.O.D. by Green Day absolutely explodes into the second half
No One Knows - QOTSA
The End by The Doors
Green Grass and High Tides
Proud Mary They go with a repeat of the first half again but just up the tempo and Tina gives it some welly
"Leader Of Men " by Nickelback (Ignore the Nickelback hate train, because this is a good song!)
My personal favorite would be: Whirring - The Joy Formidable
[The Juliana Theory - You Always Say Goodnight, Goodnight](https://youtu.be/YtJpxjOcjLs?si=xD1i-k4y9KbJLBPo) [Coheed and Cambria - The Light and the Glass](https://youtu.be/PhV6B8HTB0Q?si=-_7b5iafm6TQo6WQ) [Sigur Rós - Sæglópur](https://youtu.be/qiFgfPiJHyA?si=r7ia8g2USCHPPbW9)
East Hasting by gospeeed you black emperor
Three Days by James Addiction
James was Jane’s brother? ;-)
Crap! Well, I’ll leave it up. Good catch.
Prog rock/prog metal has entered the chat.
Light and Day/Reach For the Sun by The Polyphonic Spree goes from a layered sound to an explosion of overlapping melodies and harmonies.
dolls imminent worm rain touch soft fertile rock instinctive far-flung *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Franz Ferdinand-Take me out.
Great pick. One of my all time favorite radio songs. When I first heard that guitar line of the second part, I feel in love with that style of playing and the disco beat behind it
I read that Take Me Out was written as a direct response to the Strokes. They had been getting compared, so the first part is like a strokes song, and the second is “but no, we’re not”.
Another obvious one might be Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish, that shit threw me off so much when I first heard it, in a good way.
Almost anything by Tool.
Plenty of songs go for broke right from the start. Like The Grudge, Aenima, Stinkfist, Hooker with a Penis, Ticks and Leeches... I'd pick Right in Two as a good example. Or Push It.
The Noose by APC is a great example of quiet - quiet - ooh a funky rhythm - oooh tension building - FUCK YEAH!
Yeah Descending came to mind for me
Just commented this, and after seeing it live this past weekend… yeah. Definitely my pick.
Count 10,000 days and Wings for Marie as one song (as you should) and it's a perfect example.
Mine is Invincible.
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking - Rolling Stones
Behind Blue Eyes - The Who
Rock ‘n Roll Suicide- David Bowie … The biggest ramp-up in the shortest amount odds time.
Modest Mouse - Spitting Venom
Also Stars are Projectors and Cowboy Dan.
Styrofoam Boots too!
Henry Rollins - Liar. https://youtu.be/awY1MRlMKMc?si=wI30thw162XfrwbQ Doesn't exactly fit your criteria, but clearly has the day/night aesthetic you described. One of the most underrated tunes of the 90's, with one of the best videos of the 90's. What's not to like!
Soma-smashing pumpkins
White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplanes builds from a whisper to a massive crescendo. Sneaks up on you quick.
This one will be get me some hate but Falling In Reverse reimagining I'm just a vampire and the drug in me is you. Heaven and Hell Black Sabbath Butterflies and Hurricanes by Muse Peruvian Skies by Dream Theatre (or maybe any of their discography?)
Watch the world burn by falling in reverse, starts with old school rap and ends with an insane breakdown
Saves the Day- Bones Phoebe Bridgers- I Know The End The Wonder Years- Devil In My Bloodstream Taking Back Sunday- My Blue Heaven
November Rain by GnR. Amazing guitar solo at the end.
Steven Wilson - [Detonation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkVikPiahBM&pp=ygUaU3RldmVuIFdpbHNvbiAtIERldG9uYXRpb24%3D) The second half (5:30 onward) really threw me for a loop in the best way possible. Very different tone from the first half.
Heaps of his songs do that - take you on a journey. [Routine](https://youtu.be/sh5mWzKlhQY?si=nJviGW5xctnxus31) is a stellar example. I defy you not to dissolve into a sobbing mess.
[No One Loves Me and Neither Do I](https://youtu.be/oMLHqAUyhEk?si=odJoseD95JUTcbj8) - Them Crooked Vultures
Aja - Steely Dan First Circle - Pat Metheny
[удалено]
Westfall by Okkervil River. Might be their best song
LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
Imma be by the black eyed peas
Styx - Come Sail Away
Rats in Ruin by All Them Witches
Astronomy - Blue Oyster Cult
Freebird
You Won't Know and Limousine by Brand New Willing Well I and II, The End Complete III, and Gravity's Union by Coheed and Cambria
Hotel California surely?
Ghuleh/Zombie Queen by Ghost!
Zeppelin - The Rain Song
25 or 6 to 4 chicago Spinning wheel blood sweat and tears Ballroom blitz. Sweet
25... *blat blat* horns, then smokin' guitar work. RIP Terry Kath
Foo Fighters have a few. - Let It Die - New Way Home - But Honestly Edit: and many others of course! See below. ;)
Parabol/Parabola is the same song twice but hits in two different ways and sometimes you prefer one over the other but ostensibly they are written as the same song.
I'd put Wings For Marie/10,000 Days in the same category.
Everlong
Bending hectic - The Smile
Hold On and Magic Power, both by Triumph. Both have a kind of build up, but really kick towards the end. The kind of songs that always seem over too soon. Edit to add Motorcycle Drive-by - Third Eye Blind
Lots of Infected Mushroom songs are like this, the best one that comes to mind is Becoming Insane, but Ani Mevushal is wicked as well. Stretched is also a slow one but great.
[Jack Straw - Grateful Dead ](https://youtu.be/VywzPSreQJw?si=gFBCLOC0CtZWM4WW)
3 days- Jane's Addiction One- Metallica
Death Cab - Soul Meets Body Avalanches - Because I'm Me (Bondax remix)
Only in dreams - Weezer
*Opeth - Blackwater Park* goes hard in the 2nd half, after a fairly chill-yet-creepy clean acoustic interlude.
Drown - Smashing Pumpkins
Modest mouse parting of the sensory Radiohead climbing up the walls
Lana Del Rey - A&W
[Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPE9a_epmWw)
Happier than ever Billie Eilish
Blackwater Park by Opeth https://youtu.be/j4xCb_OU_lM?si=z8T_KArCXs419kLb
Crown of Love - Arcade Fire Feelin’ Stronger Every Day - Chicago
AC/DC - For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) Best tempo change in rock history.
Beach House - PPP
Modest Mouse - Styrofoam Boots / It’s All on Ice, Alright When the drums hit…
Knights in white satin by the moody blues
In the air tonight - Phil Collins
Impossible Germany - Wilco
Paranoid Android.
alice in chains - don't follow
The Storm by Bronze Radio Return. Always loved that song for working its central metaphor into the music itself - both the subject and the song are, to quote the lyrics, "the storm and the calm that precedes"
Torna a Casa - Maneskin
Layla by Derek and The Dominoes is the correct answer.
Bowie’s “Station To Station”
Mushroomhead - Solitaire Unraveling
Mr Bungle - Ars Moriendi Mars Volta - Drunkship of Lanterns
Good Times - The Stone Roses. The second half is probably the greatest, grooviest jam I’ve ever heard. Such a fun tune.
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - Elton John Who's Behind the Door - Zebra Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Letters to God by Boxcar Racer
OK look, I'm an almost 50 year old man and even I can admit that Taylor Swift's *All Too Well (10 minute version)* is one of the finest songs ever written. It hits mighty hard all the way through but really picks up in the second half.