Closer - Joy Division - Album Review
Thirty years is a long time in music, and it can be an important stretch of time for not just bands, but whole genres. Given the amount of music that has come and gone since 1980, it's remarkable that 4 blokes from Manchester whose highest charting single was #13, and who only produced two albums can be still considered one of the most important bands in history. Joy Division are of course, and its why their music, fronted by the hurting lyrics of the late Ian Curtis, is still listened to today, and held in such high regard.
Joy Divisions strength never was in their individual musical ability. Bernard Sumner only took up guitar because he didn't want a 'real job,' and his playing style hasn't altered since. Steve Morris is vastly more talented on drums, and Peter Hook saw the lack of a bonified lead guitarist as his cue to leave teeth-rattling basslines at the forefront of the bands music, so why are they still so highly regarded? It couldn't have just been Ian Curtis, when he committed suicide, New Order then went on to be one of the biggest bands in the world, arguably outstripping Joy Division. What Joy Division were able to do however (for these purposes, Joy Division = with Ian Curtis, New Order = without) was combine the sparse guitar, metronomic, endless drumming and bone-rattling bass with a wonderfully awkward singer of someone who clearly had more on his mind.
While debut album Unknown Pleasures had this in spades, Closer's message couldn't have been more clear (with hindsight) than if he'd pulled out a razorblade in front of the rest of the band and went to town on his wrists. Written at a time when things in Curtis' life were reaching a point so intense no-one should ever have to deal with, the words completely mirror his feelings, and offer a frightening insight into his mind. There's not a song which doesn't touch on his life and the problems in it, and only Joy Division could provide the musical backdrop which made the album so powerful and hard-hitting. Opener Atrocity Exhibition starts with a haunting view of what the pressure of fame can do to you, and from there Closer covers all the bases. You have depression, the issues with him cheating on his wife, battles with epilepsy and a generally bleak view on life. And despite the dark subject matter, Closer manages to be something close to a perfect album, and one of the most beautiful pieces of art ever commited to record.
In terms of a progression for the band, Closer is immense. It sounds more grown-up than Unknown Pleasures. the addition of synths give the band an extra dimension and help the songs sound more haunting. That they could go from UP to Closer in a year is astounding, most bands today take 5 years to come close to such a leap forward. The most prevalent example of the synths is in closing track Decades, which is possibly the darkest song on the album, but still has an outro that you could listen to endlessly. Other songs like Colony and Twenty Four Hours however hark back to the days where Joy Division sounded like they were playing as if their lives depended on it, and these tracks don't sound out of place at all.
Closer is an album that is over 30 years old. Joy Division is a band that ended over 30 years ago. Ian Curtis is a musical genius who died over 30 years ago. Let not the amount of time or the automatic hero-worship points that suicide committing musicians get attributed, Joy Division are one of the 5 most important bands in musical history, and Close is the perfect example why.
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Next week, Night Work by Scissor Sisters
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