[Music] Closer - 40 years old

Guinness Boy · Jul 18, 2020

6 Music has just informed me Closer by Joy Division is 40 today. My word.

Just played "Decades" and it doesn't sound 40 years old to me. Maybe that's because I'm an old fart that thinks that most modern popular music is overproduced shite (though there is still good stuff, you just have to know where to look for it). Or maybe because when it was 1980 and I was a kid, forty years ago was during the war and Vera Lynn hadn't yet hit her peak. Or maybe the advent of stereo and electronic keyboards changed music forever.

Anyway. Ave it.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Jul 18, 2020

Some very good tracks but I preferred the first album. 'Atmosphere' a tedious dirge. The live double album is their best, IMNVHO

Edit: I did buy it the day it came out and was rather staggered to be stung just over a fiver for it. Pound for pound it may be the most expensive album I ever bought. Maybe that's why I was a little disappointed it wasn't the new Surfs Up, or Low.

Beach Hut · Jul 18, 2020

Love Will Tear Us Apart is the greatest track ever

Is it PotG? · Jul 18, 2020

40th Anniversary clear vinyl out

Simgull · Jul 18, 2020

Twenty-Four Hours - in my opinion JD’s best.

The Large One · Jul 18, 2020

Along those lines, consider this journey

In 1967, we had the Summer of Love, Monterey, hippies and Sergeant Pepper. In 1976, we had punk, disco and the first 12" single. And in that time, we had anti-Vietnam songs, Woodstock, the death of Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin, glam rock, prog rock, heavy metal, West Coast (or yacht) rock, the emergence of Bowie and Springsteen, 50s revivalism, Northern Soul, rock operas and so much more...

Consider the journey in the nine years from 2011 to now. Not quite as dramatic, is it?

AIT76 · Jul 18, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jul/17/joy-division-all-of-their-songs-ranked

Guinness Boy · Jul 18, 2020

The Large One said:
Along those lines, consider this journey

In 1967, we had the Summer of Love, Monterey, hippies and Sergeant Pepper. In 1976, we had punk, disco and the first 12" single. And in that time, we had anti-Vietnam songs, Woodstock, the death of Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin, glam rock, prog rock, heavy metal, West Coast (or yacht) rock, the emergence of Bowie and Springsteen, 50s revivalism, Northern Soul, rock operas and so much more...

Consider the journey in the nine years from 2011 to now. Not quite as dramatic, is it?

Mainstream trends:

1980 - 1989 - Post Punk, New Romantic, Hip Hop and (Acid) House.
1989 - 1998 - Acid House to Big Beat, Acid Jazz and Britpop
2011 - 2020 - Overproduced shite featuring David Guetta to overproduced shite featuring David Guetta

Weststander · Jul 18, 2020

OP, I knew straight away from the heading you meant this album. I’ve played it to bits over 4 decades, thanks nme for publicising it back in the day.

Decades is so beautiful.

KZNSeagull · Jul 18, 2020

An utterly superb album (other than Atrocity Exhibition), one of the very best.

The Large One · Jul 18, 2020

Guinness Boy said:
Mainstream trends:

1980 - 1989 - Post Punk, New Romantic, Hip Hop and (Acid) House.
1989 - 1998 - Acid House to Big Beat, Acid Jazz and Britpop
2011 - 2020 - Overproduced shite featuring David Guetta to overproduced shite featuring David Guetta

Agree, but the journey from 1967 to 1976 was far wider, deeper and - with the technology - more experimental.

el punal · Jul 18, 2020

The Large One said:
Along those lines, consider this journey

In 1967, we had the Summer of Love, Monterey, hippies and Sergeant Pepper. In 1976, we had punk, disco and the first 12" single. And in that time, we had anti-Vietnam songs, Woodstock, the death of Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin, glam rock, prog rock, heavy metal, West Coast (or yacht) rock, the emergence of Bowie and Springsteen, 50s revivalism, Northern Soul, rock operas and so much more...

Consider the journey in the nine years from 2011 to now. Not quite as dramatic, is it?

No comparison is there? I lived in a run down house shared with three other blokes in the early 1970s in London Road. Each of us had completely different tastes in music, which in turn, made me appreciate the whole gamut of sounds.

One of the blokes was into Bob Marley, Van Morrison, Zappa, Beefheart - he called Yes mogadon music!
Another enjoyed Roxy Music and Bowie. Me? Led Zep, Who, Traffic, Fairport Convention and . . . Yes.

We all went to see various bands at pubs, the Dome, Brighton Poly, even Hove Town Hall where I saw Captain Beefheart and Gong!! Best gig for me was Bad Company at the Rainbow in Finsbury Park.

Heady days indeed.

Herr Tubthumper · Jul 18, 2020

The Large One said:
Along those lines, consider this journey

In 1967, we had the Summer of Love, Monterey, hippies and Sergeant Pepper. In 1976, we had punk, disco and the first 12" single. And in that time, we had anti-Vietnam songs, Woodstock, the death of Morrison, Hendrix and Joplin, glam rock, prog rock, heavy metal, West Coast (or yacht) rock, the emergence of Bowie and Springsteen, 50s revivalism, Northern Soul, rock operas and so much more...

Consider the journey in the nine years from 2011 to now. Not quite as dramatic, is it?

Two things

1) You’re not the first generation to say music was better, or more “dramatic” to use your exact term, in my day than it is now...and you won’t be the last

2) I’m pretty certain in the future there will be a time when we will be able to look back on the past decade and highlight and pinpoint key moments and changes.....just like you’re doing now with your era.

Eric Potts · Jul 18, 2020

KZNSeagull said:
An utterly superb album (other than Atrocity Exhibition), one of the very best.

I'd probably say Atrocity Exhibition is my favourite on there. However life would be quite dull if everyone liked the same things .

KZNSeagull · Jul 18, 2020

Eric Potts said:
I'd probably say Atrocity Exhibition is my favourite on there. However life would be quite dull if everyone liked the same things .

Ha Ha, well there you go!

Lower West Stander · Jul 18, 2020

Joy Division are one of the greatest bands ever. Can’t believe Closer is 40 years old. Loved all their albums including the Warsaw stuff.

Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio....

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Nitram · Jul 18, 2020

Herr Tubthumper said:
Two things

1) You’re not the first generation to say music was better, or more “dramatic” to use your exact term, in my day than it is now...and you won’t be the last

2) I’m pretty certain in the future there will be a time when we will be able to look back on the past decade and highlight and pinpoint key moments and changes.....just like you’re doing now with your era.

Only thing worse is an ageing hipster trying to validate their perspective and chase the new thing

I’d say he was quite right but I am in his age category, what I am surprised about is how many early twenty to mid thirty somethings are so knowledgable and passionate about music from that era.

Acker79 · Jul 18, 2020

Speaking of song anniversaries:

[tweet]1284133948583542786[/tweet]

Herr Tubthumper · Jul 18, 2020

Nitram said:
Only thing worse is an ageing hipster trying to validate their perspective I’d say he was quite right but I am in his age category, what I am surprised about is how many early twenty to mid thirty somethings are so knowledgable and passionate about music from that era.

I don’t have any real music perspective to validate. My point is there have been some significant cultural moments and shifts in recent years and there will continue to be so. Just because they are not consumed by us, don’t resonate or impact us, and are maybe communicated in a language and currency we don’t fully understand, doesn't mean they don’t exist. I admit it’s unlikely there will be another Beatles but then you can’t invent the wheel twice.

Fair cop on the ageing hipster comment though :lolol:

Uh_huh_him · Jul 18, 2020

Eric Potts said:
I'd probably say Atrocity Exhibition is my favourite on there. However life would be quite dull if everyone liked the same things .

I got into Joy Division in 81, I was 13.
They changed my taste in music

Closer is a perfect album to me. Not a single duff song on the album.
Unknown Pleasures is fantastic, but i can do without, I rememember nothing.

I hadn't listened to Closer for a long time I bought it on CD in the 90s, because I knew I needed it in my collection, but never put it on.

About 10 years ago i was playing some songs on Spotify and for some reason Closer came up as a suggestion of other stuff to play.
I put it on expecting it to sound horribly dated 80s synth goth/indie rock.
It blew me away again, probably more so than when I was a teenager.

Listening to it again recently having just rewatched the film Control,made the lyrics even more poignant.
I read somewhere that Curtis told Sumner that writing the lyrics was the easiest thing he had ever done. "as if the songs were writing themselves"

It is an exceptional piece of work.

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