Joy Division – Closer

Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976, consisting of Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attending a Sex Pistols concert. While Joy Division’s first recordings were heavily influenced by early punk, they soon developed a sound and style that made them one of the pioneers of the post-punk movement. Closer is their second and final studio album, released on 18 July 1980, two months after the suicide of Ian Curtis. The songs on it were drawn from two distinct periods. The earlier guitar-driven compositions were written during the latter half of 1979: “Atrocity Exhibition”, “Passover”, “Colony”, “A Means to an End” and “Twenty Four Hours” while the other songs (“Isolation”, “Heart and Soul”, “The Eternal” and “Decades”) were written in early 1980, and included more prominent use of synthesisers. Closer has been highly acclaimed, and is often cited as Joy Division’s finest work, being considered by music critics such as Mark Fisher to be “the crown jewel of post-punk”.

Label: Factory Records
Cat. # FACT XXV