release date: Jul. 17, 1980
format: vinyl (FACT XXV / FACT 25) / cd (1988 reissue)
[album rate: 5 / 5] [4,92]
producer: Martin Hannett
label: Factory Records - nationality: England, UK
Tracklist: A) 1. "Atrocity Exhibition" (5 / 5) (live) - 2. "Isolation" - 3. "Passover" - 4. "Colony" - 5. "A Means to an End" - - B) 1. "Heart and Soul" (live) - 2. "Twenty Four Hours" (5 / 5) - 3. "The Eternal" (5 / 5) - 4. "Decades" (5 / 5)
2nd and final studio album Joy Division is the equally stunning follow-up to the brilliant debut, and once again it features Martin Hannett as producer. The music has changed and seem much more mature but still it's unquestionable Joy Division and what a progression from the debut! The first track "Atrocity Exhibition" [a title with reference to a novel by J.G. Ballard "The Atrocity Exhibition") is a fantastic emotional journey where Stephen and Bernard proves their worth. This was the first track I ever heard with the band and it completely blew me over. I don't know if I've heard the debut or this one the most, as I loved them both.
Closer was better received by music fans and critics but the band could not continue without its iconic front figure. The overall theme in the lyrics of Ian Curtis is about... death. The cover of a tomb, selected before Curtis' untimely death, underlines the motif in an almost prophetic way. The album was released exactly two months after Ian's death. Ned Raggett of Allmusic.com today writes "Joy Division were at the height of their powers on Closer, equaling and arguably bettering the astonishing Unknown Pleasures, that's how accomplished the four members were. Rock, however defined, rarely seems and sounds so important, so vital, and so impossible to resist or ignore as here."
Like the debut, the album is rightfully enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com, NME, Select, Uncut, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone Album Guide 5 / 5 stars ]
1980 Favourite releases: 1. Joy Division Closer - 2. Kliché Supertanker - 3. The Jam Sound Affects
