10 Greatest Album Closers Of All Time
2. Decades - Joy Division (Closer, 1980)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMAB3r6EjcMIf you listen to the anecdotes of Joy Divisions remaining members (who went on to form New Order after Ian Curtis tragically took his own life) regarding the making of Closer, you will be left baffled. The testaments of Peter Hook, Barney Sumner and Stephen Morris all suggest that where Curtis was a shy and quiet individual, they had no idea of the inner turmoil that he was suffering. Their biggest mistake in this respect, and ironically the one that makes this album so essential, is their ignorance of Closers lyrics. Drowning in less-than-subtle references to depression, anxiety, self-loathing and sorrow, anyone who listens intently to the album will not fail to pick up on Curtis using this art form as an aural suicide note. Even its contentious title, which still sparks debate as to whether Curtis was suggesting a deeper study of his unhappiness or a brutal end to his tortured life, seems glaringly obvious. Too entrenched in creating the murky and claustrophobic atmospherics that so fittingly compliment their lead singers dark vision, the bands musical spine falsely believed (as did Factory mogul Tony Wilson) that Curtis lyrics werent serious but merely art. Clearly they werent privy to the notion of art imitating life.
Closers ending track itself, Decades, is the culmination of Curtis impassioned cry for help and is the equivalent of the mentally-ill front man signing his name on said suicide note. Beginning with the punishing sound of Morris reverb-infected drums before a funereal organ and Hooks jaunty bass enter the fray to soundtrack the songs lyrical journey to the gates of hell, Decades does not make for easy listening. Curtis words tell of men with weights on their shoulders entering hells darkest chamber to watch their sorrowful lives being played out before them in a portrayal of drama and degeneration, as he plays his own judge, jury and executioner and grants his own doomed sentence for his failed marriage and indulgence in affairs. The instrumentation that backs this harrowing closer is extremely reminiscent of the cold industrial sound that David Bowie honed as an artist on his lauded Berlin Trilogy and as a producer on Iggy Pops The Idiot. The latter of which was found, rather poignantly, on Curtis turntable when his wife, Deborah, discovered his body on that fateful day in 1980.