The Cure

The songwriting process for Disintegration was in part fueled by Robert Smith’s fear of reaching the age of 30 having not yet created his masterpiece. “Closedown” details Smith’s anxiety, insomnia, and the drug-fueled haze that drove his creativity at the time. "The biggest frustration (of getting older) is not being able to feel strong emotions anymore," Smith said when discussing the album's lyrics. "Cynicism enters your world and you get numb." Robert Smith mentioned “Closedown” when speaking about Disintegration with Melody Maker in 1989: “(Disintegration has) got a lot more in it than a record like Faith. With Faith, it was like one song divided up into eight different songs. I suppose songs like “Closedown” and “Untitled” take up that thread, going back to the old things about age, sadness, and disintegration itself. They give the record a bleaker mood overall. I think it’s the kind of record you’d want to listen to on your own.“ Separately, Smith called “Closedown” the album’s ‘key song’: “…the key song on the album could be “Closedown”. I think it’s horrible that you become insensitive with age. When you’re young and naive, you always have intense feelings. All you gain with experience makes you lose that.“