Joy Division were at the height of their powers on Closer, equaling and arguably bettering the astonishing Unknown Pleasures, that's how accomplished the four members were. Rock, however defined, rarely seems and sounds so important, so vital, and so impossible to resist or ignore as here.
Closer is even more austere, more claustrophobic, more inventive, more beautiful, and more haunting than its predecessor. It's also Joy Division's start-to-finish masterpiece, a flawless encapsulation of everything the group sought to achieve.
Closer is the album that would come to define Joy Division in all their suicidal glory. Their previous effort, Unknown Pleasures is argued to be the better album of the two Joy Division put out, but honestly who cares?
The music of Joy Division — an art-minded English postpunk band that initially struck reviewers as a tuneful version of PiL — sets forth an even more indelible vision of gloom. In fact, it's a vision so steeped in deathly fixations that it proved fatal.
#5 | / | Paste |
#10 | / | Rolling Stone |