"God", Rip Rig + Panic, 1981
Dia: 10
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
Um álbum por dia, sem medo a gente arriscaria.
"God", Rip Rig + Panic, 1981
Dia: 10
"God", Rip Rig + Panic, 1981
Dia: 10
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
An album a day, if you're looking for a pop group just go away!
"Y", The Pop Group, 1979
Dia: 9
"Y", The Pop Group, 1979
Dia: 9
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
Ouvir: http://youtu.be/viqOIqGLLgI
Uma parceria com José Carlos Soares.
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): These abrasive, militant British punks rage against racism, oppression, hunger and anything else that's a world problem; as usual, there's no solution, only anger. The seminal Bristol band synthsizes Beefheartian structures and tribal dance beats to create a didactic soundtrack that barely lets you breathe. Their two primary albums are alternately brilliant and intolerable.
The A to X of Alternative Music (Continuum, 2004): The single "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" is equal parts funk, dub and rock, and it sounds magnificent. The effects-laden guitar crashes in over the funk stabs, echoed drums and busy bass while Stewart puts in an intense falsetto off-key vocal performance (...). The first album, Y, addressed issues of general exploitation and veered between the plaintively pretty and the intensely ugly in terms of the music. Mark Stewart screams throughout most of it, only calming down for the closing track. The music sometimes seems all over the place but then the album's standout track "We Are Time" is the tightest seven minutes of punk-funk ever laid down.
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (Virgin Books and Muze, 1998): Their records are by turns inspirational and intolerable, some of the most extreme music to have been pressed onto vinyl. ★★
AllMusic: Abrasive, but interesting, the Pop Group's debut is perhaps the most succinct summation of their angry and defiant approach to rock & roll. Although at times resembling the discordant funk of fellow post-punk radicals Gang of Four, the Pop Group leave rhythm behind almost as quickly as they find it, and the result is a clattering din of sound resembling an aural collage. ★★★★1/2
Punknews: Is is Y actually that good of an album? Honestly, it's the sort of record that's incredibly vexing to rate. It's an extremely important achievement, a record which truly sounds like nothing else, and yet it has several major flaws. The largest of these is that it's simply inconsistent. While several of the songs are truly mind-blowing, others fall rather flat once the novelty of the Pop Group's approach wears off. If Y were an EP containing "She Is Beyond Good and Evil", "Thief of Fire", "Snowgirl", "We Are Time" and "Don't Call Me Pain", I would likely rate it a 9 or 10. But as is, half of the album is rather mediocre. The other important issue is that, honestly, Y can be very difficult to listen to. Especially the first few listens, it can truly be a chore to try to get what's going on. But the challenge Stewart and company present is well worth tackling. Y presents a real experience, an outlook on music that can be found in few other places. If you can handle it, I highly recommend giving Y a few spins – if only to broaden your horizons. ★★★1/2
Piero Scaruffi – Best Rock Albums of all Times: Y (1979), one of the most intense, touching and vibrant albums in the history of rock music, was the outcome of the Pop Group's quest for a catastrophic balance between primitivism and futurism: the new wave's futuristic ambitions got transformed into a regression to prehistoric barbarism. At the same time, the band's furious stylistic fusion led to a a nuclear magma of violent funk syncopation, monster dub lines, savage African rhythms (Bruce Smith), dissonant saxophone (Gareth Sager), and visceral shouts and cries (Mark Stewart). [9]
Pitchfork – 100 Best Albums of the 1970s [N.35: 'Y']: Unlike most of the late-’70s no-wave types (and perennial imitators), the Pop Group were less concerned with eschewing convention than with vehemently eviscerating it. Listen to how they tear apart a boxy, reverb-laden surf riff on “We Are Time” with Dadaist malice and contempt. It’s impossible to ignore Mark Stewart’s incessant Thatcher-bashing, but Y is so convincing in its hectoring that one can easily imagine it arising from even more amicable circumstances. This is a record of dire necessity, armed for combat against a long litany of ills—none more than typicality.
Rolling Stone – The Oral History of the Pop Group: The Noisy Brits Who Were Too Punk for the Punks: You get a visceral feeling about whether this is fucking working or isn’t. what we were playing was so outlandish to some people they were stunned into silence.
PopMatters – The 50 Best Post-Punk Albums Ever [N.11: 'Y']: Improvisational and spontaneous but not assembled at random, Y may be the closest the mutant disco brand of post-punk ever came to the jazz ethos. The Pop Group was unquestionably one of the broadest-reaching and noisiest acts during the post-punk era. At the same time, their philosophy boiled down to an erratic, adventurous, danceable vision unrivaled by most in either category. For as radical as Y seemed, it hardly sounded like the product of a band yearning for success. Instead, they aimed only to be visceral and provocative – true to the core of post-punk.
The Guardian – March 1979 Sounds interview with Peter Silverton, first published before the release of their debut album, Y: When I walked in the room, they were all dancing. Eric Dolphy wheezed from the speakers like an asthmatic who’d just snorted up five Benzedrex inhalers in one go. And the horde danced on, half a dozen or so bodies flicking their limbs around in a late-’70s variant of zoot suit be-bopping. The ghost of Charlie Parker’s exhausted frame lives on in Bristol, carefully tended by the Pop Group and their Saturday morning constitutional. Two weeks later, the photographer arrives in the same room and the same dance is being performed. Is this how they spend all their spare time or is it an initiation ritual for the first-time visitor to their communal meeting-place-cum-informal-office, this shabby but chic ground floor flat in a not very well preserved monument to the solidity of Victorian house building?.
Fact Magazine: Joy Division’s Closer is often considered the crown jewel of post-punk, but Y – inchoate with potential, the fire to Joy Division’s ice – has an equal claim. The album was sui generis.
Nick Cave on The Pop Group: "It was just this unholy, manic, violent, paranoid, painful music."
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
Um álbum por dia, na frente tudo alumia.
"Odyshape", The Raincoats, 1979
Dia: 8
"Odyshape", The Raincoats, 1979
Dia: 8
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
Ouvir: http://youtu.be/PRP8nkaxMkQ
Shouted out loud by José Carlos Soares!
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): On Odyshape, the scope of the band's sound expands; the mingling of snappy acoustics and jangly electric guitars provides saner contrast to the violin shrieks. There's even a song about a girl who's "Only Loved at Night". But the Raincoats are still no easy listen.
AllMusic: It was the late Kurt Cobain (with some help from labelmates Sonic Youth) who initiated Geffen's reissue of the Raincoats' catalog. And listening to Odyshape, it's easy to see why Cobain loved them so. There's an emotional directness about these songs that hooks you from the start. ★★★★1/2
Pitchfork: A big part of Odyshape's charm is derived from its backwards construction, with the band leaning away from the spikiness that made The Raincoats such an inviting listen, and writing many of the songs without percussion. The tribal drumming of original member Palmolive was forcibly removed from the mix – she quit the band by the time of this record, causing percussion to be added after the fact by a variety of guest players including Robert Wyatt and This Heat's Charles Hayward. Coloring in the songs in that manner might sound like the band were shoving a square peg in a round hole, but it undoubtedly contributed to the uniquely disorienting air that Odyshape thrives on. It's from a place where the Raincoats' best ideas stem – throwing orthodoxy out of the window, playing on instruments with which they weren't familiar, assembling all the parts back to front because the standard way of doing things held little or no interest. [8]
BBC: If The Raincoats’ beautifully scrappy self-titled debut seemed to hail from a different territory than most of its post-punk peers, then its follow-up, 1981’s Odyshape, was from an entirely different planet. While the first album had employed a traditional guitar/bass/drums set-up bolstered by the plaintive and dissonant violin of Vicky Aspinall, Odyshape added instruments such as balophone, shruti box and kalimba to the band’s panoply. More than the exotic instrumentation, though, it’s the extraordinary structures of Odyshape’s songs that distinguish it. (...) This was simply one of those moments when some very talented songwriters, influenced by the right things at the right time, produced a unique album. It should be considered a classic.
Drowned in Sound: [Kim Gordon's] love of The Raincoats is clearly sincere, and one sentence in particular – 'They seemed like ordinary people playing extraordinary music' – is especially wise. [8]
She Shreds – 40 Years of Fairytales: A Retrospective of The Raincoats: It mostly began when Birch and da Silva met at Hornsey College of Art, where they were both studying, and started going to punk gigs together. They saw bands like the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, and Subway Sect, but it wasn’t until they saw the Slits play their first gig in London in 1977 that their brains were jolted. “I was completely blown away”, says Birch over Skype, laying on a couch in her home, eyes closed to conjure the moment. “It was as if suddenly I was given permission. It never occurred to me that I could be in a band. Girls didn’t do that. But when I saw the Slits doing it, I thought, ‘This is me. This is mine.’ ” (...)
Odyshape developed an experimental free-jazz sound. “I suppose we were exploring more things,” says da Silva. “The first album, we didn’t know how to play that well. The whole punk thing inspired us. It was more direct. Then we started floating away.” A stand-out on the album is the opener, “Shouting Out Loud”, which begins with airy drums, sparse guitars, and a driving bass. “I love that bassline”, says Birch. “In the second half of the song it’s the spine, and it meanders all over the place. If you listen to it without hearing the bass, then you’re missing such a huge part of it.”
Vulture – How a British Post-Punk Group Influenced Entire Generations of Rock Bands: 1981’s Odyshape is even more thrilling, showing that the Raincoats were intent on breaking through the parameters of punk to further the resonance of their songs: there’s the rush of violin and roiling drums on the poignant “Shouting Out Loud”, the piano ballad turned hushed skank of “Dancing in My Head”, a heartbreaking lullaby plucked out on kalimba for “Only Loved at Night”.
The Quietus – INTERVIEW: The Raincoats: If the band’s debut denoted a predilection for noisy, primitive post-punk, then their 1981 follow-up Odyshape exposed even more of The Raincoats’ idiosyncrasies and wide-ranging influences by incorporating British folk, dub basslines, polyrhythmic percussion and elements of free jazz alongside other world music influences. This diverse hybrid of styles resulted in the band becoming imperative proponents of Britain’s underground music history.
The Washington Post – Gina Birch of the Raincoats on 'Odyshape' 30 years later: I suppose partly we were naive, partly we were idealistic. Perhaps it’s the same thing, they go hand in hand to some degree. I think in a way that makes it good — that we weren’t trying to conform to what people might expect from us. (...) Also we were girls — women — doing stuff and there weren’t very many women doing things. The expectations on us weren’t... we knew we were breaking through a little wall, if you like. Breaking through some kind of boundary. So we were going into unexplored territory.
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
Um álbum por dia, o melhor remédio para a azia!
"Cut", The Slits, 1979
Dia: 7
"Cut", The Slits, 1979
Dia: 7
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): Lurching into existence during the original 1977 explosion of pre-commercial London punk, the all-female Slits wrested the anyone-can-make-a-band-so-why-not-do-it-yourself ethos away from the traditionally no-women-allowed rock brotherhood and unselfconsciously paraded their stunning amateur rock noise with support from bands like the Clash. While on the road as part of a punk package tour, the Slits were immortalized in all their primitive glory in "The Punk Rock Movie". Looking back at the group's tentative beginnings now, it's clear that while the Slits may have been truly awful, they weren't much worse than many of their male contemporaries, and undoubtedly a damn sight better and smarter than some.
It was probably fortunate, however, that several years elapsed before the Slits got around to recording a debut album; by the time they reached the studio, Viv Albertine, Ari Up and Tessa, joined by drummer Budgie (later of Siouxsie and the Banshees) had become reasonably competent players. Spare and rudimentary but bursting with novel ideas and rampant originality, Cut – brilliantly produced by Dennis Bovell – forges a powerful white-reggae hybrid that serves as a solid underpinning for Ari Up's wobbly, semi-melodic vocals.
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (Virgin Books and Muze, 1998): Signed to Island Records, the Slits worked with reggae producer Dennis Bovell on the dub-influenced Cut. The album attracted considerable press interest for its sleeve, which featured the group naked, after rolling in mud. ★★★
AllMusic: Its amateurish musicianship, less-than-honed singing, and thick, dubwise rhythms might not be for everyone, but there's little denying the crucial nature of the Slits' first record. (...) Cut placed the Slits along with the Raincoats and Lydia Lunch as major figureheads of unbridled female expression in the post-punk era. Sure, Hole, Sleater-Kinney, and Bikini Kill would have still happened without this record (there were still the Pretenders and Patti Smith, just to mention a few of the less-subversive groundbreakers), but Cut placed a rather indelible notch of its own in the "influential" category, providing a spirited level rarely seen since. Heck, the Slits themselves couldn't match it again. ★★★★1/2
Pitchfork: This album is a keystone for any and all punk-based grrrl movements. And – though it goes without saying, it's often said anyway – this album is terribly, terribly important in the history of the rock music and the grand scheme of canonical flippity floo flap. (...) Cut is actually a lot of fun. Fun in the way the group turns every subject it touches into a giddy playground sing-a-long, whether it be a diatribe against pre-set gender roles ("Typical Girls"), a story about Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten butting heads ("So Tough"), a cautionary tale about PiL's Keith Levene's drug use ("Instant Hit"), or songs tackling other didactic topics like invasive media propaganda, shoplifting and the idealized love of a new purchase. (...) If you're coming to them for the very first time, then I envy you. [9.3]
Rolling Stone: The record is an innovative mix of punk and reggae, with flip, deadpan lyrics ("He is set to self-destruct!/He is too good to be true!") followed by singsong choruses. Lead singer Ari Up carries many of the tracks with her hot scream and weird vibrato, paving the path for a generation of riot grrrls. If you're wondering where Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney came from, Cut is a chance to fill in the blanks. ★★★1/2
BBC: Known to the legions of John Peel's listeners as a regular session act who had created an amusingly chaotic punk noise, The Slits are a great example of a band who, having taken a while to actually get a record deal, became something far greater. Cut, their debut, is a startlingly complex and compelling hybrid of punk, dub and pop that sounds as fresh and contemporary as ever.
The Guardian – Mud, music and mayhem: why the Slits' 'Cut' is still up for a fight: With Ari aged 17 and the others not much older, its songs lay out a set of frustrations – such as the choking stereotypes of femininity in "Typical Girls", or disappointing boyfriends on "Ping Pong Affair". (...) Released in 1979, as wilfully amateur, clashing guitars had begun to seem an exhausted gesture, Cut retained the defiant attitudes but moved on to more adventurous sonics. Almost from the off, Jamaican music had been the preferred listening of the bands making their reputation with shouty noise. The Slits were among the first to try absorbing that influence fully into their own music.
The Guardian – Ari Up: a punk with the courage to confront (Jon Savage): By the time the Slits recorded their first album in 1979, they were a completely different band from their thrash beginnings. Produced by Dennis Bovell, the reggae-infused Cut is justly celebrated as a landmark statement that includes strong songs such as "Newtown", "Shoplifting" and, of course, "Typical Girls" – an enduring manifesto for young women who seek to reject the norm.
Punk has now become so familiar that people forget its primal, revolutionary drive. For a brief period, everything had to be new. If it hadn't been done before, do it: why not? What's to stop you? Ari Up enacted this impulse on stage, on record, and in person into the 21st century. In any language, this was heroic, and I salute her for that: I'm sorry she's gone.
Pitchfork – The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs: The Slits waited three years after forming to record their masterful debut, Cut, which fused punk, dub, and reggae with more poise and intelligence than any of their punk comrades. Sounds zipped in and out from all sides: flecks of piano, rattling spoons, splashes of minimal noise guitar. “Typical Girls” wound up and unraveled so many times that the whole song seemed to spin in circles. It protested female stereotypes with pure magic, Ari Up incanting over its spindly spirit: “get upset too quickly”, “don’t think too clearly”, “buy magazines”, “worry about spots”, “don’t create”, “don’t rebel”. The Slits defied all of this.
The most pressing question of “Typical Girls” is right at the heart of the song: “Who invented the typical girl?” At a time when the widespread image of a feminist was unfairly dour and militant, the Slits were funny and playful—and though they rejected the tag of “feminist” at the time, they were. “Typical Girls” was the Slits doing exactly what they wanted. It was a sprint with a smirk.
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
"É um álbum por dia, mas eu só me lembro de frases de porcaria."
"Nocturne", Siouxsie and the Banshees, 1983
Dia: 6
"Nocturne", Siouxsie and the Banshees, 1983
Dia: 6
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
César said it!
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): Nocturne is a two-LP set recorded (with no overdubs) at a pair of Royal Albert Hall shows in late 1983. Robert Smith is the featured guitarist on a full-course selection from the band's repertoire, stretching back to "Switch", "Helter Skelter" and "Israel", but also drawing heavily from A Kiss in the Dreamhouse (1982). Awesome.
AllMusic: Nocturne is a top-notch live double album recorded in 1983 at the Royal Albert Hall. The sound quality is first-rate and the band performs excellently here. The songs on this release run a wide chronological range, from early numbers like the Lennon/McCartney cover "Helter Skelter" (here given a fire-breathing performance) to their recent single of the time (another Beatles song), "Dear Prudence". Much of the material is culled from the group's recent releases: Juju, A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, and Kaleidoscope. ★★★
The Quietus: Coasting on the back of the Top three hit, 'Dear Prudence', Siouxsie & The Banshees made a two-night stand at the prestigious Royal Albert Hall and the result was Nocturne. An anomaly among live albums, Nocturne bears repeated listens and despite reportedly awful onstage sound, the band are taut and urgent with Siouxsie in her finest ice-maiden guise as she heaps withering contempt on those audience members shouting out for 'Love In A Void' ("What time tunnel did you come through?") as much as she does on her band ("Can't you get out of tune any faster?").
The Quietus Writers' 40 Favourite Live Albums: Whether it was Bauhaus' Peter Murphy swathed in the glorious sweeps of Mussorgsky's 'Night On Bald Mountain' whilst advertising Maxell cassettes or Siouxsie And The Banshees electing to open this grand double live album to the strains of the once scandalous 'The Rite Of Spring' by Stravinsky, it looked as if goth was attempting to align itself with classical music's more dramatic gestures. But if Siouxsie And The Banshees failed to spark the kind of riots that greeted the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's experimental piece, the two concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in the dull autumn of 1983 that provided the songs for this live album caused no little excitement among the faithful. For this writer, attending the second concert on October 1, one of the thrills was my first visit to the stunning environs of the Royal Albert Hall. The other was the anticipation of seeing The Cure's Robert Smith on guitar duties in the wake of John McGeoch's departure and their recent smash hit, a cover of The Beatles' 'Dear Prudence'. Though the order of songs differs wildly from what was actually played across the two nights, Nocturne stands as both a representation of where they were at that point in their career and their status as an incredible live band. Be it Budgie's precise and muscular rhythms, Steven Severin's flanged bass, Siouxsie's commanding presence or Robert Smith's interpretation of other guitarist's material, the performance is magnificent and convincing throughout. By cherry picking their finest material, Nocturne was – and still is – a kind of alternate Greatest Hits that acts as a gateway to their kaleidoscopic world.
The Guardian: Barefoot, and vocally more foghorn than siren, Siouxsie struts like a particularly ill-tempered dominatrix costumed by Klimt or Bakst. When the song calls for it she writhes in Freudian recall of nursery nightmares to guitar-rock of chilling drama that owes more to Alban Berg than Chuck Berry. Not a wink nor a smile breaks the spell – which peaks, naturally, with the hit 'Spellbound' – and no band can have been more calculated to thrill the average English and Drama A-level student. High-concept schlock, of course, but the inner goth remains mightily impressed. ★★★★ [DVD]
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
An album a day, dark your path shall lay.
"Mask", Bauhaus, 1981
Dia: 3
"Mask", Bauhaus, 1981
Dia: 3
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
Escolhido colectivamente nas ordens maçónicas do submundo da web.
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): Mask, their finest achievement, explores a variety of styles, incorporating airs of heavy metal, funk brass, and Tangerine Dreamy electronics into an organic whole. Though still weighty, the lyrics make occasional stabs at humor and reveal an increasingly romantic side.
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (Virgin Books and Muze, 1998): Often insistent on spontaneity in the studio, they recorded four albums in as many years, of which Mask proved the most accessible. ★★★
AllMusic: On Mask the members of Bauhaus consciously stretched themselves into newer areas of music and performance, resulting in an album that was arguably even better than the band's almost flawless debut. ★★★★
Drowned In Sound: By the time they'd started writing and recording the material that would eventually form the basis of their second album Mask, Bauhaus' sound had already developed quite considerably. While the harsh, incisive edge of Daniel Ash's guitars and the Haskins brothers' savage backline still remained intact, they'd also embraced the dislocated strains of groove-based dance music currently being employed by fellow scholars of futuristic punk Gang Of Four and Orange Juice. (...) Once again produced by the band, but this time engineered by esteemed studio boffin Mike Hedges, Mask was undoubtedly influenced by the likes of Iggy Pop's "Nightclubbing" and Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" as well as the other more inventive artists of the day such as Public Image Ltd and DAF. [8]
Sputnik Music: Kicking off interestingly enough with a repetitive drum beat and a recurring guitar note, "Hair of the Dog" sets the standard for what was to be a very varied album. Peter Murphy's vocals, as always, give fresh personality to most of the songs found on Mask, though at times his vocals can weaken the choruses of songs such as "The Passion of Lovers" and "The Man with the X-ray eyes". Murphy's vocals are not always this weak, however, and it certainly shows on the gloom of the title track and the extremely funky "Kick in the Eye". ★★★★
Os Mediterrakeos apresentam:
Um álbum por dia, traz luz à alma sombria.
"Closer", Joy Division, 1980
Dia: 2
"Closer", Joy Division, 1980
Dia: 2
Mês: Maio
Ano: 2013
Ano: 2013
Uma iluminação de José Carlos Soares.
"É a primeira vez que repetimos uma banda no Álbum do Dia. Impunha-se, neste caso. Não só porque os Joy Division são uma das Bandas da Casa, mas também porque estes dois álbuns (Unknown Pleasures e Closer) são quase como o lado A e o lado B de uma obra maior."
The Trouser Press Record Guide – Fourth Edition (Collier Books, 1991): Closer sounds emptier and more distant, with occasional use of strangely distorted synthesizer and jagged shards of guitar, both played by Bernard Sumner. Meanwhile, a dislocated Curtis meanders through a world that has robbed him of joy and hope. From the blunt anomie of "Isolation" to the accusatory chorus of the martial-beat "A Means to an End" to the somber piano-based "The Eternal", Curtis' commanding vocals dominate the record. On Closer, refinement of the Joy Division ethos produces a purgatory of sound and words. A stunning, deeply personal album.
The A to X of Alternative Music (Continuum, 2004): "Heart and Soul" and "Isolation" get into a groove that marks them out as prototype New Order, but for balance "Twenty Four Hours" is the darkest they ever got and allows Morris to demonstrate his remarkable skills as a drummer. "Atrocity Exhibition" reflects on Curtis' epileptic illness as a performance – "for entertainment they watch his body twist" – and provides some insight into a possible reason for his suicide a few weeks after the track was recorded.
The Rolling Stone Album Guide – Third Edition (Random House, 1992): For all the harrowing detail of Curtis' obsessed monotone, Joy Division breathes fresh musical ideas into punk rock. Unknown Pleasures and Closer obliquely acknowledge the demon disco: deploying space and silence around Stephen Morris' (barely) syncopated beat, emphasizing Peter Hook's melodic bass lines and reducing Bernard Sumner's guitar to a textural blur. When Ian Curtis' inner vision gets claustrophobic, the music opens up a window. ★★★★
The Virgin Encyclopedia of Indie & New Wave (Virgin Books and Muze, 1998): On 18 May 1980, the eve of Joy Division's proposed visit to America, Ian Curtis was found hanged. The verdict was suicide. The full impact of the tragedy was underlined shortly afterwards, for it quickly became evident that Curtis had taken his life at the peak of his creativity. While it seemed inevitable that the group posthumously released work would receive a sympathetic reaction, few could have anticipated the quality of the material that emerged in 1980. (...) The attendant album, Closer, was faultless, displaying the group at the zenith of their powers. With spine-tingling cameos such as "Isolation" and the extraordinary "Twenty Four Hours", the album eloquently articulated a sense of despair, yet simultaneously offered a therapeutic release. Instrumentally, the worked show maturity in every area and is deservedly regarded by many critics as the most brilliant rock album of the 80s. ★★★★
AllMusic: Rock, however defined, rarely seems and sounds so important, so vital, and so impossible to resist or ignore as here. ★★★★★
Pitchfork: 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. [10]
Rolling Stone: The band's second and last album, Closer (recorded just prior to Curtis' death and released shortly afterward by Factory), became one of the fastest-selling independent-label LPs in British New Wave history. By year's end, it had topped several critics' and readers' polls as best album. ★★★★
Rolling Stone – 100 Best Albums of the Eighties [N.56: 'Closer']: "It's a heavy album", says Bernard Sumner, who played guitar and keyboards with Joy Division and still can't listen to Closer. "It was a voyage into the dark side of yourself."
The Guardian – My favourite album: I can still remember an open window, the sun streaming on to my Fidelity UA4 stereo and a thought hitting me then that remains unchanged 31 years later: I love this album more then any music ever. For me, Closer contains the saddest, most beautiful music ever made.
NME – Most Important Albums Of NME’s Lifetime: Ian Curtis didn’t live to see Closer's release, but even if he hadn’t immortalised himself in the most tragic way that an artist can, Closer would still deserve every plaudit, every ‘Greatest Album Of…’ award that has come its way.
http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/most-important-albums-of-nmes-lifetime-joy-division-closer-766499
Uncut – Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris on the making of 'Closer': Hindsight has endowed the making of Closer, Joy Division’s second album, with all manner of terrible intimations. Entire theses may well have been written parsing Curtis’ every action in the months running up to his suicide, seeing harbingers of doom in the most mundane acts. The real story of Closer, though, is less melodramatic and poetic, and a lot more human and complex. It is about spirited young men on the cusp of fame, still uncomfortable with the idea of discussing – or even confronting – each other’s emotions.
The Quietus – Interview: Peter Hook: "Unknown Pleasures was easy for us. Just a rock out, really. Closer was a much more complex and difficult album, but I think we did it justice. In fact, that is my favourite moment to date. Playing 'The Eternal'. I couldn't believe how amazing that song is and to be able to play it in the knowledge that I played a part in creating it. Very special that, mate. Very special."
Observador – 'Closer': um disco que mudou Portugal: Em 1982, António Variações estava pronto para gravar a sua versão de "Povo que lavas no rio". Em estúdio, Variações queria soar como os Joy Division após ler um texto de Miguel Esteves Cardoso que identificava os pontos comuns entre o fado e a música da banda de Manchester. “O António tinha esse texto com ele, recortado do Se7e, tanto quanto me lembro, e perguntou-me se eu podia fazer o "Povo que Lavas no Rio" soar da maneira que o Miguel descrevia. E foi assim que aquela versão nasceu”, explicou ao Observador o produtor Ricardo Camacho, também radialista e teclista dos Sétima Legião.
Miguel Esteves Cardoso, O Jornal, 8-4-82 (retirado de "Escrítica Pop", Assírio & Alvim, 2003): Em Dezembro de 1981 saí de Manchester com o trabalho mais perigoso e belo que alguma vez saiu daquela cidade. Entrei em Lisboa, transportando as fitas matrizes de Closer num saco de plástico da Sapataria Lisbonense. E durante toda a viagem, como uma criança, como um pai, segurei-as junto a mim, com medo de perdê-las, com medo que não fosse verdade. Em Abril de 1982 foi finalmente publicado em Portugal essa verdade que afinal era.
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Que fez o tempo a estas canções? Que tem o tempo a ver com estas canções? Será que o suicídio de Curtis influenciou a reacção a elas? Será que a morte tem algo a ver com estas canções? E deve responder-se respectivamente: nada, nada, não e não. Reagir a Closer com sentimentalismo não só o desrespeita como o destrói. As canções de Closer são excessivamente nítidas para isso. Não buscam, antes estabelecem e se perdem no confronto. No confronto com o quê? Com a vida, e não com a morte. Com a solidão, e não com a saudade. Com a dor e o terror, e não com a moinha ou com o receio.
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Nada mais que a música Pop levada até às últimas consequências, o lado 1 do lugar Closer é uma acção de desnudamento. Só a percussão fica, só a voz, só as linhas absolutamente necessárias à transmissão viva de cor. De certa forma, os Joy Division terminam, enquanto conjunto Pop, na última estria do lado 1. Na primeira estria do lado 2, outro lugar se inicia. E é feito de tudo o que o primeiro não é: sonhos, mistérios, perguntas, indefinições. Que culmine com "Decades", uma das poucas canções que o Pop deixará para se chorar a si mesmo, é uma daquelas felicidades, e uma daquelas tragédias (de não saber o que se seguiria) que ninguém tem sensibilidade para explicar.
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Closer tem tantos defeitos, tantas qualidades – e ambas deslumbrantes. Closer tem em si os extremos da fealdade e da beleza. Como LP (que não é – são dois lados distintos) de música Pop, tornou-se o mais belo e influente da década de 80. Ousou um caminho diferente, de afrontamento em vez de fuga, de profundidade em vez de ligeireza, de tristeza em vez de mera melancolia – ousou um lugar e ocupou-o de tal forma, com tanta convicção e paixão, que o lugar se tornou apenas seu.
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