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Closer

Joy Division - Closer Audio CD

A fair review of the Joy Division "Closer" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Joy Division reviews here, or go back to the Joy Division tabs.

Band: Joy Division
Title: Closer
Rating:

Release Date: 2008-03-11
Media: Audio CD

Live CD is off speed, runs fast.
I have had to use editing software to slow it down, why couldn't the manufacturer do this?. The live CD is recorded too fast.

One of the greatest albums of all time
Joy Divisions"Closer" ranked 157 in Rolling Stones Magazine top 500 albums of all time, in quote "One of the most de-pressing albums ever made, with droning guitars and synthesizers, chilly bass lines, stentorian vocals and drums that sound as if they're steadily beating out the rhythm of doom. One of the greatest albums of all time, hands-down. And thats not even considering the lyrics". The lyrics where writen by Ian Curtis, the bands lone writer, a few months before he commited suicide on May 18, 1980. The lyrics are beyond dark, they are extremely intimate and haunting. Closer is a must have for any Joy Division fan, or your collection is not even close to being complete. This collectors edition comes with two discs. The first being Closer and the second being live material. Live at the University of London Union, Feb 8, 1980. The twelve tracks consist of a mix of songs from "Closer" and singles; namely Dead Souls, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Digital, and Glass. Joy Division where legendary live, blowing away every crowd, blessed enough to see them in-person, they encountered. The best part of this reissue, is both the album and the gig are remastered. A must have. "We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber, Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in". Ian Curtis, Decades. .

Correct Song Lsit
This is the correct listing:
CD One: Closer
"Atrocity Exhibition" - 6:06
"Isolation" - 2:53
"Passover" - 4:46
"Colony" - 3:55
"A Means to an End" - 4:07
"Heart and Soul" - 5:51
"Twenty Four Hours" - 4:26
"The Eternal" - 6:07
"Decades" - 6:10

CD Two: Live at ULU 8 February 1980
"Dead Souls" - 4:58
"Glass" - 3:42
"A Means To An End" - 4:00
"Twenty Four Hours" - 4:05
"Passover" - 4:53
"Insight" - 4:01
"Colony" - 4:04
"These Days" - 4:17
"Love Will Tear Us Apart" - 3:13
"Isolation" - 4:41
"The Eternal" - 6:30
"Digital" - 3:14 . Amazon's song list is incorrect.

Fantastic Album, worth all of your pennies..
This music is just so charged with the intense feelings of Ian Curtis, you can't possibly describe how heavy this album is. This is the better of the two Joy Division albums, though their first is an excellent album itself. I won't say more. Just go and buy it. It is worth your money, it is worth your time, and if you can, go see the movie Control and enjoy Joy Division. Music this good cannot go unheard.

Internal debate on this record
He loves rock and roll, and he's in a band and writes music, and he is as of now blissfully unaware of Joy Division. I'm sitting here two weeks before Christmas debating whether to buy this CD for my 21 year old son.

Is it right to give this record to somebody? Is Christmas the right time to do it? People who have heard this record will know exactly why I ask these questions. There is no more gut wrenching work of art in existence in all the world than "Closer. " Period. "Decades" is the most gloriously sad moment of human emotion ever captured for posterity. The despondent and exhausted refrain of, "Where have they been," repeated deep amidst the swirl of ether-like synths is so bone-chillingly haunting that it simply cannot be described. It must be heard to be believed.

I always imagined "Decades" to be the final cut on the record. It would seem most fitting there. But the album lists no A or B side to confirm it. Such obfuscation only seemed perfect at the time. It was better not knowing. It wasn't important which side got played first, by the time both sides had been played, the listener came out the other side feeling the same way. The sadness and the pain saturates, it permeates, it envelopes and there is no, repeat, no redemption or hope anywhere in the process. This is as complete and stunning an impression of personal and internal despair as you will ever find.

Don't listen to this record if you are depressed or suicidal! It is too painful.

And, yet, remarkably, it is great rock and roll. The production is coldly distant, as if recorded in a church. The arrangements are simple, rhythmic, spare, and repetitive, and each instrument comes through the ambient reverb with stark and remarkable clarity. Ian Curtis' vocals fly through like arrows. The band has punk energy and can slash like a chainsain one moment and then chunk and lurch the next. This is a first class rock band churning out first class rock and roll songs. And then the band can bathe you in the lushness of "Decades. "

It is important that anyone who loves rock and roll, or even art, at some point listen to this record. For a full of understanding the human condition, it is that important. Whether to own it, and to listen to it repeatedly is healthy, that's an individual thing.

So, still I'm left, wondering if this makes a good Christmas gift. Well, maybe not. It seems that a Christmas gift ought to be a bit more joyful. But at some point, this record will end up in his collection.

Scott

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You can see a complete list of all Joy Division discography, or go back to the Joy Division tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.