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Is it possible to draw a dividing line that can perfectly define a boundary within which any form of art, from the most complex to the most embryonic, from the highest to the lowest, can qualify as impersonal? And if it is not possible, when it interacts with some kind of real contingency, to what extent does it allow itself to be affected by the latter? These are questions I ask myself every time I write something: to what extent can what I write be influenced by my experiences, by the desire to do my best, and by the parallel apathy for continuous dissatisfaction, for my foolish prejudices, for the hatred that makes me feel small, for this cigarette that's about to go out. Each time it seems impossible to give a precise answer to each of these questions because no answer could assume general characteristics that could satisfy all the concrete cases that chance puts at our disposal and disadvantage. Thus, we have no choice but to analyze the particular rather than the universal. The particular case of my interest today is Joy Division's second studio work, released in 1980. Many will ask why. Because its beauty lies precisely in its becoming so inseparably intertwined with the life of Ian Curtis, the band's leader, and the band's own destiny that the sad autobiographical twist (Curtis would take his own life on May 18, 1980, by hanging himself) appears as the natural continuation of what the record conveys.
But "Closer" is not just a testament and, above all, it is not a melodramatic staging. It is a representation, an illustration of an inner world that can find no stability and reaches a point of implosion, aware that its ultimate end is self-destruction, as foreshadowed by the splendid cover depicting a tomb and figures in mourning attitudes (as many might know, the photo subject on the cover just described is the Appiani family funeral monument in Staglieno, near Genoa). "Closer" is an experience that every music lover should undertake, accompanied by Curtis's disenchanted and stern voice and those sounds on the verge of the spectral.
"Atrocity Exhibition" takes its name from the collection of short stories by the celebrated James Graham Ballard, a work from 1970 (translated in Italy as "La mostra delle atrocità," for those interested) which has at its basis a perverse taste for mental insanity, sexuality (if not pornography), macabre atmospheres. The track opens with Stephen Morris's drums that almost tribally adhere to Curtis's voice and his obsessive refrain "this is the way, step inside", an invitation to travel, to share his pain. Then you listen to "Isolation", you see Joy Division anticipate synth-pop and realize how much Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, and Soft Cell owe to them, just to name a few. "Passover" arrives and once again that drum that seems to want to mimic the pulse of blood through veins, following an unsettling regularity and flowing beneath lyrics that aim to describe the chaos inside Curtis's head, that chaos which was combined with a disconsolate and desolate view of the world ("Colony"), certainly influenced by the pessimism to which his "great evil," epilepsy, had condemned him; which had led him to grow tired of his existence. But the best comes with "Heart and soul", another portrait of himself among fears, disappointments, manias, the most hypnotic track of the album, a manual of instructions for his malaise. We then move to "Twenty four hours" where the leader's droning tone matches perfectly with Sumner's monotonous guitar. A buildup of tension that finds release in the beautiful "The Eternal" with that piano distinctly imposing itself over distant sounds like echoes. The cathartic journey concludes with "Decades" where the band enshrouds itself in a nebulous, distant aura, almost as if it already wants to declare belonging to the past.
"Closer" shines with the charm of a twilight work, where a sense of end, dissolution, death reigns and its lyrics are the diary of a man who has already chosen to die because inside he cannot feel alive. It is a great poem of individual sentiment that at certain points will guard ambiguous, difficult, cryptic traits. Only one person could have explained them best, but as already mentioned, this person is unfortunately no longer here.
As Thumb would say, "A lasciarci per primi sono sempre i megli!"
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Atrocity Exhibition (06:04)
The silence when doors open wide
Where people could pay to see inside
For entertainment they watch
his body twist
Behind his eyes he says I still exist
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
In arenas he kills for a prize
Wins a minute to add to his life
But the sickness is drowned
by cries for more
Pray to God make it quick - watch him fall
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way
This is the way
This is the way
This is the way
This is the way, step inside
You'll see the horrors of a far-away place
Meet the architects of law
face to face
See mass murder on a scale
you've never seen
And all the ones who tried hard
to succeed
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
This is the way, step inside
And I picked on the whims of
a thousand more
Still pursuing the path
that's been buried
For years of dead woods and jungles and
cities on fire, can't replace
or relate,
can't release or repair -
take my hand,
and I'll show you what was - it will be.
02 Isolation (02:53)
Be clear every day, every evening
It calls here aloud from above
Carefully watched for a reason
Mistaking devotion and love
Surrendered to self-preservation
For those who just care for themselves
But life as it touches perfection
Appears just like anything else
Isolation
Isolation
Isolation
Mother, I tried, please believe me
I'm doing the best that I can
I'm ashamed of the things
I've been put through
I'm ashamed of the person I am
Isolation
Isolation
Isolation
But if you could just see the beauty
These things I could never describe
This pleasure's a wayward distraction
This is my wonderful prize
Isolation
Isolation
Isolation
Isolation
Isolation
03 Passover (04:46)
This is a crisis I knew had to come,
Destroying the balance I'd kept.
Doubting, unsettling and turning around,
Wondering what will come next.
Is this the role that you wanted to live?
I was foolish to ask for so much.
Without the protection and infancy's guard,
It all falls apart at first touch.
Watching the reel as it comes to a close,
Brutally taking it's time,
People who change for no reason at all,
It's happening all of the time.
Can I go on with this train of events?
Disturbing and purging my mind,
Back out of my duties, when all's said and done,
I know that I'll lose every time.
Moving along in our God given ways,
Safety is sat by the fire,
Sanctuary from these feverish smiles,
Left with a mark on the door,
Is this the gift that I wanted to give?
Forgive and forget's what they teach,
Or pass through the deserts and wastelands once more,
And watch as they drop by the beach.
This is the crisis I knew had to come,
Destroying the balance I'd kept,
Turning around to the next set of lives,
Wondering what will come next.
04 Colony (03:55)
A cry for help, a hint of anaesthesia,
The sound from broken homes,
We used to always meet here.
As he lays asleep, she takes him in her arms,
Some things I have to do, but I don't mean you harm.
A worried parent's glance, a kiss, a last goodbye,
Hands him the bag she packed, the tears she tries to hide,
A cruel wind that blows down to our lunacy
And leaves him standing cold here in this colony.
I can't see why all these confrontations,
I can't see why all these dislocations,
No family life, this makes me feel uneasy,
Stood alone here in this colony.
In this colony, in this colony, in this colony, in this colony.
Dear God in his wisdom took you by the hand,
God in his wisdom made you understand.
God in his wisdom took you by the hand,
God in his wisdom made you understand.
God in his wisdom took you by the hand,
God in his wisdom made you understand.
God in his wisdom took you by the hand,
God in his wisdom made you understand.
In this colony, in this colony, in this colony, in this colony.
05 A Means to an End (04:05)
A legacy so far removed
One day will be improved
Eternal rights we left behind
We were the better kind
Two the same - set free too
I always looked to you.
We fought for good - stood side by side
Our friendship never died
On stranger waves - the lows and highs
Our vision touched the skies
Immortalists with points to prove
I put my trust in you.
A house somewhere on foreign soil
Where ageing lovers call
Is this your goal - your final needs?
Where dogs and vultures eat
Committed still, I turn to go
I put my trust in you.
In you, in you, in you
Put my trust in you, in you
07 Twenty Four Hours (04:26)
So this is permanence, love's shattered pride.
What once was innocence, turned on its side.
A cloud hangs over me, marks every move,
Deep in the memory, of what once was love.
Oh how I realised how I wanted time,
Put into perspective, tried so hard to find,
Just for one moment, thought I'd found my way.
Destiny unfolded, I watched it slip away.
Excessive flashpoints, beyond all reach,
Solitary demands for all I'd like to keep.
Let's take a ride out, see what we can find,
A valueless collection of hopes and past desires.
I never realised the lengths I'd have to go,
All the darkest corners of a sense I didn't know.
Just for one moment, I heard somebody call,
Looked beyond the day in hand, there's nothing there at all.
Now that I've realised how it's all gone wrong,
Gottas find some therapy, this treatment takes too long.
Deep in the heart of where sympathy held sway,
Gotta find my destiny, before it gets too late.
08 The Eternal (06:06)
Procession moves on, the shouting is over,
Praise to the glory of loved ones now gone.
Talking aloud as they sit round their tables,
Scattering flowers washed down by the rain.
Stood by the gate at the foot of the garden,
Watching them pass like clouds in the sky,
Try to cry out in the heat of the moment,
Possessed by a fury that burns from inside.
Cry like a child, though these years make me older,
With children my time is so wastefully spent,
A burden to keep, though their inner communion,
Accept like a curse an unlucky deal.
Played by the gate at the foot of the garden,
My view stretches out from the fence to the wall,
No words could explain, no actions determine,
Just watching the trees and the leaves as they fall.
09 Decades (06:09)
Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders,
Here are the young men, well where have they been?
We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber,
Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in,
Watched from the wings as the scenes were replaying,
We saw ourselves now as we never had seen.
Portrayal of the trauma and degeneration,
The sorrows we suffered and never were free.
Where have they been?
Where have they been?
Where have they been?
Where have they been?
Weary inside, now our heart's lost forever,
Can't replace the fear, or the thrill of the chase,
Each ritual showed up the door for our wanderings,
Open then shut, then slammed in our face.
Where have they been?
Where have they been?
Where have they been?
Where have they been?
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Other reviews
By TenshiSell
Ian Curtis was about to become a living legend. He lucidly chose to limit himself to being a legend.
You collapse to the ground, a scream frees you from a burden.
By Mr.Moustache
It is 1980. Punk is dying and with it the little good music ... when suddenly, in less than a year, an album is about to change the course of contemporary music forever.
The glacial beauty of the album is indisputable due to the ruthless sincerity it suggests.
By andrea biacca
"Closer" is a journey made of nightmares, sadness, physical and mental stimulations; the musical transposition of the agony of the most charismatic leader rock has ever had: Ian Curtis.
All we have left is to listen to this musical masterpiece and appreciate its excellent craftsmanship, both in terms of lyrics and harmonies.
By COX
Closer is the testament in which Curtis invites us to explore the roots of his illness and his apathy towards life.
Joy Division has the power to tear you apart, to gradually consume you with their melody that backs you against the wall and forces you to face reality for what it is.
By darkfall
‘Closer’ is a truly difficult album to classify, but probably not to understand... I personally prefer to classify it as dark, just dark and nothing more.
‘The Eternal’ is a funeral march, accompanying Ian Curtis on his last journey... the heart is now definitively burned but the soul is still here.
