Closer (Collector's Edition)

Editors’ Notes Chillier and more ethereal than the charred Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division's second and final studio album tore a jagged hole through post-punk convention, as dirges like "Atrocity Exhibition" rubbed elbows with manic, synth-streaked dance-floor cuts like "Isolation." Dripping with echo, Martin Hannett's production gleams like a freshly polished tombstone. Late frontman Ian Curtis is the music's aching center of gravity, by turns unhinged, dejected, and resigned. To hear the album is to mourn what might have been—and celebrate what was.