40 Years Of Joy Division's Masterpiece: Closer
The first of the records 9 songs, Atrocity Exhibition, is the albums mission statement. Curtis' lyrics reflect his livelihood, the paranoid epileptic forced to stand on stage night in and night out, like an atrocity in the village square. His repeated methodical chants of "this is the way, step inside" make it clear that indulging in the depravity of this album and its themes will not be pleasant. The tight jungle drums work alongside wiry wailing guitars to create a fascinating and incredibly unsettling instrumental palette, Closer begins with a warning for all who enter.
Isolation hides its depravity behind a jagged synth line that feels like a haunted version of what would go on to be New Order, but much more resembles Suicide. "I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through, I'm ashamed of the person I am" shows Ian refusing to mince his words, Isolation isn't just a song title but a desperate attempt to reconnect with himself, which isn't working. This leads comfortably into the slow burner Passover with Stephen Morris' pinpoint drumming providing a distant backdrop to Ian's biblical poetry. The track completely forgoes a hook using only reverb heavy guitar work to separate it's verses which make grand and poetic references to change, as life passes Ian by. The song ends with a particularly haunting passage which it's been said Curtis used to symbolize "what's next" being death.
"This is the crisis I knew had to come, destroying the balance I'd kept
Turning around to the next set of lives, wonder what will come next"
"A cry for help", the opening lyrics of Colony turned haunted when reflected back on their lyricist and his life cut short but the songs instrumental holds nothing back. The records loudest sound palette yet kicks off with a post-punk staple ripping guitar riff but this time it stays tightly locked into its frame for nearly the entire song, driving us head first through lyrical destruction. At this point on the album the haunting sensations and unwavering emotions are clear, before even stepping into a track as provocatively titled as A Means To An End. Even with an instrumental nearly innocent enough to be a Devo song the track has a disturbed edge that is unshakable. While it isn't exactly clear who Ian is talking to on the hook he makes one thing very clear, "I Put My Trust In You", his decision is no longer in his own hands, and a leap of faith is coming.
The records B-Side kicks off with bass and percussion, both played with a pinpoint accuracy that is as unnerving as it is intoxicating. On one of the most distant vocal performances of Ian Curtis' career he presents a fascinating conundrum on Heart And Soul's hook, it's nihilism with a choice.
"Heart and soul, one will burn"
Ian makes mention of the abyss, but what stares back at him reflects the themes stated on Atrocity Exhibition, a completion of his outsider manifesto that compares his life to "a circus, complete with all fools". Twenty Four Hours is the lack of a hook taken to perhaps the most tragic form, as Ian switches on a dime between fast paced verses with blunt depictions of his failing romance and his desperate measures to recover himself, and slower more poetic and depraved passages that mirror the records pair of closing tracks. With a roaring instrumental that dares you to groove to the depravity Bernard, Stephen and Peter put together one of the best performances of their collective careers on the track that became the closest thing to a hit for the record, alongside Isolation.
The album ends on a pair of 6 minute songs that display the bleakness of Ian's situation with a heavy handed, almost crushing methodology. While The Eternal's opening verse is nowhere near the songs peak of desperation it sets up for the tracks crushing finale. As his lyrics mirror the sensation of a child trapped, crying out desperately for freedom, or maybe for something even sadder. After a loud and abrasive musical passage the true meaning of the songs title comes into focus. Nothing has changed and nothing will change, as our character is trapped by the same fences and walls, watching the same leaves fall off the same tree there is no escape, his pain is eternal. Viewed alongside its companion track Decades, a song about the transition into adulthood so thoroughly breaking Ian's spirit that it's beyond recovery, feels almost like a relief. With synths so cold that they can nearly be mistaken for warm and a strange descending chord progression the track feigns positivity before it's final verse slams the door shut on the sentiment.
"Weary inside, now our hearts lost forever,
Can't replace fear, or the thrill of the chase,
Each ritual showed up the door for our wanderings
Open then shut,
Slammed in our face"
Ian Curtis passed away by suicide on May 18th, 1980. Closer was released on July 18th of the same year. The world got to experience this record for exactly what it was, the final words of one of musics most tortured performers. As Ian Curtis felt like a freak in a cage, and wrote as if the world had turned its back on him, forgotten to deliver what it promised, the world already knew his fate. It isn't uncommon for musicians and all artists alike to muse on death, and often those who are the most fascinated by it are the same that face it's realities prematurely. But rarely is there a more haunting display of emotions towards mortality than on Closer. Ian speaks of his death as an unstoppable impending force, repeatedly making lyrical references to losing control, as if it is already out of his hands. Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow in a sea of difficult emotions put on display across the record is that if the world had heard it sooner, maybe Ian could have been saved.
But what he left behind is a set of songs so blunt and uncompromising that his lyrical genius, alongside the instrumental excellence of his fellow band members, is on display from the moment the rumbling drums of Atrocity Exhibition kick the record off, to the moment Decades last riff settles to a silence. In the wake of it all is Closer, one of the greatest albums of all time.
