Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Joy Division - Closer

Joy Division – Closer
Factory, 1980
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2006
Price: $9

I picked this up right around my Joy Division renaissance, somewhere in early college. “Ooo, Spanish Pressing,” I thought to myself, as I saw this written on the price tag and a little “Made in Spain” sticker on the back. Really, all “Made in Spain” means is that this version of the record sounds like shit. Sure, the songs are there, but it sounds pretty terrible and this isn't a record I can tolerate terrible sound quality from. I want the bass to boom, I want the drums to snap, I want Ian Curtis' voice to haunt my fucking dreams and this copy does none of those things and I really need to sell this back to Love Garden. Maybe Spaniards have lower expectations. The record also skips in certain places, which is frustrating given that there are no obvious scratches on it. Actually, my Joy Division renaissance was in 2004, senior year of high school and it was important because that's about when I started thinking of music critically. I noticed that I hated Interpol's first record before getting into Joy Division, which honestly, took a lot of work. That is, it took a lot of listens. Eventually I fell in love and it sparked my own post-punk phase. This was a symbolic change, as I replaced all the cloth punk rock patches on my messenger bag with a sole Joy Division patch. That patch was on there all through college, and when it eventually fell off I decided to get a new bag, hence the post-post-punk phase I'm currently living in. Anyway, after getting into Joy Division I thought Interpol sounded great, although highly derivative (which is why I thought Antics was their best record, as they capitalized on Paul Banks gifts as an excellent pop songwriter). Anyway, I need to get rid of this shitty copy and buy a reissue or something. This is unacceptable. Currently, it's stuck on “Colony” doing an endless skip.

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