Joy Division
Atmosphere

THE REVIEW

After the terrible death of Ian Curtis in May 1980, Factory released the absolute masterpiece of Joy Division (Closer) leaving out two great tracks: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and "Atmosphere" published in the same year in the maxi single format (12" 45 rpm). It's this single I mentioned that I want to talk about.

The single indeed contains the side A track which is "Atmosphere", a slow piece characterized by the moving voice of Ian Curtis. An unforgettable song and my favorite of the group alongside "Decades" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart". Like many others, the track is characterized by a dark lyric: it repeats don't go... don't go. The video, shot if I'm not mistaken in 1988 by Anton Corbijn (a director who this year released the film "Control" about Curtis's life and a famous photographer of U2's Joshua Tree) is a film equally mystical, strange hooded men with white and black robes move with importance, and at the end of the video, they carry away a large painting featuring poor Ian Curtis.

The second side contains the track "She's Lost Control" already previously published on "Unknown Pleasures" remixed and extended. The song is another great classic that opens with an iconic bass line that pulses throughout the piece. "She's Lost Control" is dedicated to a friend of Ian who also suffered from epilepsy and tells of the moment when she lost control and died in a Manchester clinic due to frequent epileptic seizures.

The record comes with a beautiful white cover featuring a splendid photo of a swamp and trees during winter taken by Charles Meecham, very somber and fitting for the track "Atmosphere", which as mentioned is the side A of the Maxi single.

I decided to talk about this maxi single to complete the discography of Joy Division, waiting for someone else to review the maxi single "Love Will Tear Us Apart". I think it’s better to publish reviews of this type than about albums like "Closer" which have had dozens of reviews. For more information about the band visit Wikipedia, or better yet read the book "Così lontano, così vicino" by Ian's wife Deborah Curtis, very intense and reveals the lesser-known sides of the singer's life, unfortunately for us readers and alas for Deborah, we don’t know much about the state of mind in Curtis's final months of life as he masked everything, and secondly, he had cut ties with the author of the book, his wife, to live with his lover.

I recommend the single to vinyl collectors, those who buy CDs can certainly pick up the "Permanent" collection.