VINYL FORMAT. The news of singer Ian Curtis's suicide still hung in the air when this album was released. Given the deep introspective nature of Joy Division's music, his death invested Closer with an even greater pessimism. Yet there is a fragile beauty in its content and if Curtis's voice seems more distant, it complements the sparse textures created by mesmerizing synthesizer lines and occasional, highly effective, piano. Slow, hypnotic tempos increase the sense of brooding mystery and if the few faster songs provide musical relief, their lyrics prove equally tortured. Eerie, yet compulsive, Closer confirmed Joy Divison's pre-eminent place in rock's pantheon.