Joy Division

Review: Cutting to the chase in an attempt to avoid something cliched like 'what an honour it is to write something on a Joy Division album', it's astounding that 'Closer' has now passed the 40 year mark. Perhaps not as immediate and certainly less familiar to many compared with their 'Unknown Pleasures' debut, in many ways this serves the record well. It's an altogether more experimental beast in terms of song structures and ideas, and as such doesn't feel definitive of a moment but instead timeless. That said, this is still very much a case of perhaps the greatest post punk band of all time delivering a masterpiece difficult second LP, with audible hallmarks of act and era. From opener, 'Atrocity Exhibition', through the whispered and suppressed 'Heart & Soul' and onto the beguiling 'Decades', 'Closer' makes it painfully clear that had circumstances been less tragic Joy Division would likely have continued to deliver for many more years than fate allowed.

Review: Warner has worked on a run of Joy Division reissues this month and after their most famous "Love Will Tear Us Apart" comes "Transmission" which is not far behind. A 2020 Digital Remaster reboots the sounds but retains the grit and urgency of the original, which is a surging post-punk anthem filled with angst but also a sense of vulnerability and melancholy that makes it so much more enduring. "Novelty" on the flip has a broken beat line, gauzy guitar riffs and is underpinned by an excellent insistent baseline that never lets up.

Review: All of Joy Division's biggest hits have been remastered and reissues by Warner this month. This particular heavyweight wedge of 12" vinyl offers "Atmosphere", which interestingly enough was first put in March 1980 by the Sordide Sentimental label as a France-only single under the title "Licht und Blindheit". Like "Transmission" or "Love Will Tear Us Apart", it is an essential tune with a real moodiness in the production rom Martin Hamnett. Curtis's vocals have a sense of finality to them that was to prove all too real when he committed suicide not long after recording it. 1979's "She's Lost Control" is an other archetypal, angular groove with the jittery drums that made the band so essential.