Rhino Records this summer will release a new 40th anniversary edition of Joy Division’s second album Closer, a new pressing on clear vinyl that will be issued alongside new heavyweight vinyl pressings of three of the band’s iconic non-album singles.
The announcement comes as the former members of Joy Division today commemorate the 40th anniversary of the death of Ian Curtis, who took his own life on May 18, 1980.
They’re doing so through two different online events:
- “Moving Through Silence,” an evening of music and conversation in Curtis’s memory, that will feature two of his former bandmates, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris. The two Joy Division/New Order members will be interviewed by Dave Haslam. The Killers’ Brandon Flowers and producer Mark Reeder also will participate. The event also marks the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week in the U.K., and donations will go toward mental-health charity Manchester Mind. It will stream at 8 p.m. U.K. time (3 p.m. Eastern in the U.S.) at unitedwestream.co.uk.
- “So This is Permanent,” a concert film capturing Peter Hook & The Light’s 47-song performance of Joy Division’s entirecatalog on May 18, 2015, in Macclesfield, U.K., will stream for 24 hours on Joy Division’s and Hook’s Facebook and YouTube pages. The film is free to watch, but donations can be made to the Epilepsy Society — which also will be benefit from proceeds of the DVD release of the film in June. The 24-hour broadcast is now underway on Hook’s Facebook page.
On the reissue front, the new clear-vinyl pressing of 1980’s Closer will be released July 17 — as will 12-inch singles of “Transmission,” “Atmosphere” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” each with remastered audio and pressed on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl. According to Rhino, the singles have not been repressed since the demise of Factory Records.
See the full tracklists below:
Joy Division, Closer
Side A
“Atrocity Exhibition”
“Isolation”
“Passover”
“Colony”
“A Means To An End”
Side B
“Heart And Soul”
“Twenty Four Hours”
“The Eternal”
“Decades”
Joy Division, “Transmission”
A: “Transmission”
B: “Novelty”
Joy Division, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
A: “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
B: “These Days”
Joy Division, “Atmosphere”
A: “Atmosphere”
B: “She’s Lost Control”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Lyrics by Joy Division, The Smiths and The Stone Roses appear on Manchester streets
- Watch: Iggy Pop and Bernard Sumner perform Joy Division’s ‘She’s Lost Control’
- Annik Honoré, girlfriend of Ian Curtis and Les Disques du Crépuscule co-founder, 1957-2014
- Joy Division’s debut EP ‘An Ideal for Living’ to be reissued on Record Store Day
Once again, if vinyl is such a superior format then why do all these reissues tend to have gimmicks like “clear” vinyl, or “swirled” vinyl coloring?
Back when vinyl was the standard physical format it was black. Oh, sure, there was the occasional picture disc for collectors, but now this oh so cooler than thou format has to have some sort of gimmick to bring attention to itself.
I think vinyl these days is made so much better than years past. With that said, you do need a higher end turntable to discern the quality of the pressings they are putting out. Any audiophiles out there want to chime in?
Which just adds to the question, if it is such a superior format why does it need all the gimmicks to sell it?
Yes, the vinyl that is made today is a better quality than the thin version mass produced in the 70’s and 80’s. Since the “vinyl is the best format for music” crowd keeps pushing that notion, why all the clear, colored, or swirled vinyl releases? Shouldn’t its “superiority” be enough to sell it?
I know that vinyl is the format of choice for hipsters, and that CDs are about as uncool as is possible for that crowd, but its constant need for gimmicks suggest something else.
Record Collector ran a piece on colored vinyl in, irony of ironies, their issue focused on collecting Joy Division releases. Turns out the more you mess with the color (e.g. adding swirls or glitter) the worse it sounds.
These releases are for hipsters who buy them as status symbols. Wouldn’t matter if it’s a googlephonic stereo with a moonrock needle, it will never get played. And yes, that is a Steve Martin reference.
FYI It’s issue 428, June 2014. The article is “Gram, Bam. Thank You, Ma’am.”
That’s a myth about coloured vinyl sounding worse. I have a friend who runs a pressing plant and produces a lot of coloured vinyl and it sounds just as good as standard black vinyl. Years ago yes coloured vinyl and picture discs sounded terrible but not today with the new hi tech plants that are being used.
FFS did anyone watch the concert yet?! Looks like you had to have a camera if you wanted a spot anywhere near the first ten rows. A 45 minute Hooky photo fest: arms up/belly out. If those guys upload all the pix…they’re gonna break the Cloud.
Nope. Citations to establish your ethos, Wac4369. Who is it? What pressing plant?
A couple of years ago I was in a Barnes and Noble store that had recently drastically scaled back their CD selection and replaced it with new vinyl.
Browsing, I saw that among it was a vinyl copy of a Toto album retailing for $29.99.
I’m sorry, but who this far into the 21st century would have any interest in spending 30 bucks for a vinyl Toto album? Certainly not the hipsters for whom so much vinyl is marketed. It seems to me that anyone who wants to listen to an entire Toto album at this day in age would be much more interested in paying 9 bucks for a CD (even less for a used one.)
I could be wrong about that, of course, but if I am then there goes the notion of vinyl being for a cooler, more enlightened crowd.