I became aware of JD because of the constant quoting of their lyrics in the Vampire the Masquerade roleplaying books. Which is an odd way to become aware of a band, but hardly the first on this list. My friend Gerry was a huge New Order fan and he gave me a copy of Joy Division’s Substance. And it was fine. There were some great songs on it, but I didn’t really click with it. But, when I went to university and started to meet people who could introduce me to new music. I came across more of Joy Division’s music.
I still remember the first time I heard the Unknown Pleasures. I was sitting in halls with some people I’d just met from my course and one of them had Unknown Pleasures on tape (Danny?) and I asked to put it on. I was floored by how dark and cold it was, however the rest of the people in the room weren’t that impressed. I think it was at She’s Lost Control where they made me turn it off.
I asked to borrow the tape and over the next few days I fell in love with one of the bleakest albums of all time.
This is another album where I could just quote the lyrics and walk off assured I’ve done a good job, but I’ll try a bit harder than that. This is an album that is dark in a way that I hadn’t encountered before. It wasn’t the ennui / self pity of Gen X. This was the bleakness of desolate industrial estates and run down housing estates. Of the crushed hope of the city torn apart and left to ruin.
The opening track, Disorder, never felt like it belonged on this album to me. It’s got a harder, more punk edge to it that doesn’t really have the same mood as the rest of the album. But then Day of the Lords starts and it sounds like the world is ending. It hits like a wave of despair crashing out of the speakers and drowning you, and it’s been one of my favourite songs since the first time I heard it.
Throughout this top 50, you’ll see me talking a lot about the use of the bass in the band, so it’s going to be pretty obvious just how much I love Peter Hook’s playing and how well it works with the band’s minimalism. There is an ongoing snobbery amongst some musicians about who you have to be a great player to make great music, but Unknown Pleasures is a text book example of a band who were not great musicians but still somehow used that to help carve themselves a completely new sound.
The vocals are also something that very clearly set the band apart. Ian Curtis’ deep voice would always have been intense anyway, but buried under all that reverb it becomes sepulchral.But never in an overblown or melodramatic way, which is an incredibly difficult thing to do. His lyrics are some of the greatest ever penned, conjuring up pure, visceral emotion. His delivery of
“We’ll share a drink and step outside
An angry voice and one who cried
We’ll give you everything and more
The strain’s too much, can’t take much more
I’ve walked on water, run through fire
Can’t seem to feel it anymore”
Is one of the greatest vocal performances of all time.
I got into Joy Division in the 90’s when they were a forgotten band, only the hardcore musos and the goths were still listening to them, so it was really, really weird seeing them explode into popular culture in the 2000’s. And while it’s always great to see a band get the recognition they deserve, it did rankle a little to see one of my favourite bands become the cool band. But the dust has settled over the decades and I’m happy to see that Joy Division will now go down in history as the legends they were, and this for me will always be their best album.
Just because I found that it exists, I’ve added a video of Morrissey and George Michael being interviewed in the early 80’s about a book on Joy Division and it’s really interesting to see which one was a dick and who was the legend. It’s not much of a guess. No reason, but it’s worth watching, if you’re into that kind of thing.
https://lynkify.in/song/new-dawn-fades-2019-digital-master/H2a3eB8h
The ways of exile 