Editing Closer (Joy Division album) (section)

== Critical reception ==
{{Album ratings
| title      = Retrospective professional ratings
| rev1       = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score  = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Raggett">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/closer-mw0000198508 |title=''Closer'' – Joy Division |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=23 August 2015 |last=Raggett |first=Ned |archive-date=23 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723224141/http://www.allmusic.com/album/closer-mw0000198508 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev2       = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
| rev2score  = A−<ref name="Christgau">{{cite book |chapter=Joy Division: ''Closer'' |chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=1856 |access-date=12 October 2012 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=[[Pantheon Books]] |year=1990 |isbn=0-679-73015-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/christgausrecord00chri/page/222 222] |archive-date=17 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317235138/https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=1856 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| rev3       = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev3score  = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book |chapter=Joy Division |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin |publisher=[[Omnibus Press]] |edition=5th concise |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-857-12595-8 |pages=509–11}}</ref>
| rev4       = ''[[NME]]''
| rev4score  = 10/10<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Joy Division: ''Closer'' |magazine=NME|date=3 July 1993 |page=36}}</ref>
| rev5       = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''
| rev5score  = 10/10<ref name="Pitchfork"/>
| rev6       = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| rev6score  = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Joy Division: ''Closer'' |magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |issue=255 |date=October 2007 |last=Lynskey |first=Dorian}}</ref>
| rev7       = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev7score  = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Joy Division |last=Gross |first=Joe |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-743-20169-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/442 442–43]}}</ref>
| rev8       = ''[[Select (magazine)|Select]]'' 
| rev8score  = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="select">{{cite magazine |title=That Was the Bleak That Was |magazine=[[Select (magazine)|Select]] |issue=39 |date=September 1993 |last=Maconie |first=Stuart |author-link=Stuart Maconie |page=95}}</ref>
| rev9       = ''[[Spin Alternative Record Guide]]''	
| rev9score  = 10/10<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Joy Division |last=McDonnell |first=Evelyn |author-link=Evelyn McDonnell |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor1-link=Eric Weisbard |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8 |pages=203–04}}</ref>
| rev10      = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev10score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/joy-division/joy-division-reissues-review |title=Joy Division – Reissues |magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |date=9 October 2007 |access-date=12 October 2012 |last=Mueller |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Mueller |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719183249/http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/joy_division/reviews/10434 |archive-date=19 July 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}
At the time of release, ''[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]]'' critic Dave McCullough wrote that there were "dark strokes of [[gothic rock]]" on ''Closer''. He described the album as "breathtaking rock music, a peak of current peaks, a sharing of something that's in [...] others at this time, but at the same time defining those black notions and leaving them unmatched."<ref name=Goth >{{cite magazine |title=Closer to the Edge |magazine=[[Sounds (magazine)|Sounds]] |date=26 July 1980 |last=McCullough |first=Dave |quote=Young men in dark silhouettes, some darker than others, looking inwards, looking out, discovering the same horror and describing it with the same dark strokes of gothic rock.}}</ref> Writing for ''[[Smash Hits]]'', Alastair Macaulay described the album as an "exercise in dark controlled passion" and wrote that its music "stands up on its own as the band's epitaph".<ref name="Smash Hits">{{cite magazine |title=Joy Division: ''Closer'' |magazine=[[Smash Hits]] |volume=2 |issue=15 |date=24 July – 6 August 1980 |last=Macaulay |first=Alastair |page=29}}</ref> Writing for ''[[Melody Maker]]'', [[Paolo Hewitt]] described the album as "probably some of the most irresistible dance music we'll hear this year [and] a far cry for sure from the almost suffocating claustrophobic world of the debut album," adding that "the best (and most subversive?) rock music has always dealt head-on with emotions and thought rather than clichéd, standardised stances; that's what makes ''Closer'' and Joy Division so important."<ref name="melody">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/joy-division-icloseri-factory-records-fact-xxv |title=Joy Division: ''Closer'' (Factory Records FACT XXV) |magazine=[[Melody Maker]] |date=26 July 1980 |access-date=21 March 2016 |last=Hewitt |first=Paolo |author-link=Paolo Hewitt |url-access=subscription |via=[[Rock's Backpages]] |archive-date=15 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315200547/http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/joy-division-icloseri-factory-records-fact-xxv |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the end of 1980, ''Closer'' was voted the 22nd best record of the year in the [[Pazz & Jop]], an annual poll of American critics published by ''[[The Village Voice]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres80.php |title=Pazz & Jop 1980: Critics Poll |newspaper=[[The Village Voice]] |location=New York |date=9 February 1981 |access-date=20 September 2015 |archive-date=6 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606213012/http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres80.php |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Robert Christgau]], the poll's supervisor, deemed the album an improvement over ''Unknown Pleasures'' in a retrospective review: "Curtis's torment is less oppressive here because it's less dominant—the dark, roiling, off-center rhythms have a life of their own. And if last time the dancier material had hooks, this time even the dirges have something closely resembling tunes."<ref name="Christgau"/> ''[[Rolling Stone]]''{{'}}s [[Mikal Gilmore]], in a 1981 profile of the band's work, wrote: "The music turns leaden, gray and steady because it means to fulfill a vision of a world where suffering is unremitting and nothingness is quiescent."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/closer-19810528 |title=''Closer'' |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=28 May 1981 |access-date=12 February 2013 |last=Gilmore |first=Mikal |author-link=Mikal Gilmore |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071026051329/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/joydivision/albums/album/207377/review/6067919/closer |archive-date=26 October 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In a book titled ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]'', published in 2005, ''Closer'' is defined as a "quantum leap" in terms of progression when compared to the band's debut album.<ref name="Dimery">{{cite book |title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |title-link=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |editor-last=Dimery |editor-first=Robert |publisher=[[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell Illustrated]] |year=2011 |orig-date=2005 |isbn=978-1-844-03714-8 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=PIyEkArSW0EC&dq=%22Compared+to+its+violent,+more+conventional+predecessor,+Closer+is+a+quantum+leap%22%22The+cover's+gravestone+design+may+have+been+an+unfortunate+coincidence,+as+it+was+decided+upon+long+before+Curtis'+death%22&pg=PT1243 462]}}</ref> According to [[Colin Larkin]], ''Closer'' has since been "deservedly regarded by many critics as the most brilliant rock album [[List of 1980s albums considered the best|of the 80s]]"; Larkin himself found the record flawless, writing in his ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]'' (2011) that it showed Joy Division at their creative peak and "maturity in every area" of their music.<ref name="Larkin"/> In his review of the 2007 reissue of the album, ''Pitchfork'' critic Joshua Klein described the album as "even more austere, more claustrophobic, more inventive, more beautiful and more haunting than its predecessor", calling it "Joy Division's start-to-finish masterpiece; a flawless encapsulation of everything the group sought to achieve."<ref name="Pitchfork"/>