JOY DIVISION: UNKNOWN PLEASURES (REVIEW)
December 7th 2006 11:30
JOY DIVISION
UNKNOWN PLEASURES
(1979; FACTORY)
RATING
TRACK LISTING: 1) Disorder / 2) Day Of The Lords / 3) Candidate / 4) Insight / 5) New Dawn Fades / 6) She’s Lost Control / 7) Shadowplay / 8) Wilderness / 9) Interzone / 10) I Remember Nothing
A while back, during a discussion via the comments section of my Regulations Review post, Adrian of Philosophy Blog fame asked about the possibility of doing a Joy Division review. Now, Joy Division were a well-hung band, and I know that’s in poor taste, but that’s the only chuckles you’re going to get out of me in this review. This is serious.
There’s a lot of Joy Division imitators out there but where most of them ring false is that they’ve confused the romance and myth of Joy Division as some kind of cooler-than-thou pose. Joy Division were working class lads growing up in the depressing industrial wasteland that is Manchester. There’s no room for posturing and pretension when everyone at the pub knows who you are and what you came from, and Unknown Pleasures (1979) speaks volumes about that existence. Joy Division's sound is romantic because it’s real, and mythic because it all ended before it had really begun; their demise no less magnificent and tragic than that of a dying sun.
Did you see what I did there? I made reference to the album’s cover image of the final flashes of a dying star, and used that as an analogy for the band’s career. This is exactly the kind of superlative overstatement and smarmy cleverness that Unknown Pleasures is NOT about.
Vocalist, Ian Curtis never really became a star, sadly hanging himself before “Love Will Tear Us Apart” broke big in the UK. But this debut album is where him and the other members of Joy Division—bassist Peter Hook, guitarist Bernard Sumner, and drummer Stephen Morris—really started to take their collective loneliness out of the bedroom and into the echoey music halls and pubs of England, only to realise that you can still feel isolated, sometimes even more so, in a crowded room.
Martin Hannett’s eerie production gives the band an echoey and cavernous sound on Unknown Pleasures that is the perfect match to their themes of self-doubt, failure, and isolation. This album shows a move away from their earlier punkier material, but the laddishness of the Sex Pistols still lingers briefly, even while they take the roboticism of Kraftwerk and marry it to the intensity of the Stooges and the artful drone of the Velvet Underground. That’s a three-way marriage, as doomed to end as the epileptic and clinically depressed frontman Ian Curtis seemingly was. But it’s captured here in all its fleeting beauty, the production haunting and distant, allowing the music to reach out to you from the abyss.
It isn’t all doom ‘n’ gloom, but a bleak, almost empty atmosphere pervades even the most upbeat tracks on this album. “Disorder” announces the band’s intent immediately, with Morris’s stiff drumming, Hook’s chunkily melodic bass, and Sumner’s cold and tinny yet nagging and expressive guitar lines, all accentuated by the churning, swirling synths. Apart from the ocean-like rise ‘n’ fall of “Shadowplay” and the punked-up “Interzone”, “Disorder” is the only truly rocking track on here. But even these more buoyant and catchy numbers have a sense of foreboding and melancholy, and an air-filled hollowness that makes Curtis’s sense of loneliness almost palpable.
Curtis’s voice might take a bit of getting used to. It’s uncomfortably deep and booming in a style probably inspired by David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s ‘German’ periods. But his quavering baritone only serves to highlight the fragility of a man reaching out for company and solace only to realise his own inability to relate to those around him. It’s particularly effective and affecting on the bubbling “Insight”, the simple mantra of ‘I’m not afraid anymore’ both chilling and uplifting. While his voice is often introverted to match the barren, insular nature of much of this dirge-like material, his vocals sometimes reach out, trying to feel something: ANYTHING. It’s there in his desperate pleading of ‘where will it end?’ over choppy, scraping guitars and swelling faux strings in “Day Of The Lords”; and in the slowly building anger of “New Dawn Fades”, his vocals soaring over what is one of the band’s heaviest, sludgiest grooves.
This album is a benchmark in both performance and production, and the use of electronics doesn’t sound outdated now because they are subtle and atmospheric. Okay, I admit the spooky sounds in “Disorder” remind me of Spider-man, and the chattery breaks that act as choruses on “Insight” sound like something from a late-‘70s shoot-em-up game; but these whiffs of cheese don’t detract one little bit. The electronic atmosphere gets no better than on “She’s Lost Control” where Morris’s clattering, reverbed drumming is matched by Hook’s amazingly high ‘n’ dry bass tone to create a desolate groove; while Curtis’s vocals are warped into something strange and haunting, and Sumner’s wonderfully chunky and mean ascending guitar line grinds away, buried in the mix. Sure, Bernie probably won’t be topping any hot-shot guitarist lists anytime soon, but his solo on “Shadowplay” is beautifully simplistic and soulful, and his jagged guitarwork is the essence of post-punk: providing accent and nuance while the rhythm section carries the tunes.
The band’s follow up Closer (1980) and the clutch of singles collected on Substance (1988) are also excellent releases that have cemented the band’s place in the annals of rock history. But for me, Unknown Pleasures is the spark, the smouldering ember to hold in the hand, the cinder that illuminates the dark hallways and helps warm you when the bedroom gets so cold. Unknown Pleasures is absolutely essential, and the sad thing is that these things only become truly clear in hindsight, when
it’s
all
too
little,
too
late…
***
IMAGES
Unknown Pleasures*
* images on this page were taken from the following Wikipedia page:
Unknown Pleasures
UNKNOWN PLEASURES
(1979; FACTORY)
RATING
TRACK LISTING: 1) Disorder / 2) Day Of The Lords / 3) Candidate / 4) Insight / 5) New Dawn Fades / 6) She’s Lost Control / 7) Shadowplay / 8) Wilderness / 9) Interzone / 10) I Remember Nothing
Unknown Pleasures (1979)
There’s a lot of Joy Division imitators out there but where most of them ring false is that they’ve confused the romance and myth of Joy Division as some kind of cooler-than-thou pose. Joy Division were working class lads growing up in the depressing industrial wasteland that is Manchester. There’s no room for posturing and pretension when everyone at the pub knows who you are and what you came from, and Unknown Pleasures (1979) speaks volumes about that existence. Joy Division's sound is romantic because it’s real, and mythic because it all ended before it had really begun; their demise no less magnificent and tragic than that of a dying sun.
Did you see what I did there? I made reference to the album’s cover image of the final flashes of a dying star, and used that as an analogy for the band’s career. This is exactly the kind of superlative overstatement and smarmy cleverness that Unknown Pleasures is NOT about.
Vocalist, Ian Curtis never really became a star, sadly hanging himself before “Love Will Tear Us Apart” broke big in the UK. But this debut album is where him and the other members of Joy Division—bassist Peter Hook, guitarist Bernard Sumner, and drummer Stephen Morris—really started to take their collective loneliness out of the bedroom and into the echoey music halls and pubs of England, only to realise that you can still feel isolated, sometimes even more so, in a crowded room.
Martin Hannett’s eerie production gives the band an echoey and cavernous sound on Unknown Pleasures that is the perfect match to their themes of self-doubt, failure, and isolation. This album shows a move away from their earlier punkier material, but the laddishness of the Sex Pistols still lingers briefly, even while they take the roboticism of Kraftwerk and marry it to the intensity of the Stooges and the artful drone of the Velvet Underground. That’s a three-way marriage, as doomed to end as the epileptic and clinically depressed frontman Ian Curtis seemingly was. But it’s captured here in all its fleeting beauty, the production haunting and distant, allowing the music to reach out to you from the abyss.
It isn’t all doom ‘n’ gloom, but a bleak, almost empty atmosphere pervades even the most upbeat tracks on this album. “Disorder” announces the band’s intent immediately, with Morris’s stiff drumming, Hook’s chunkily melodic bass, and Sumner’s cold and tinny yet nagging and expressive guitar lines, all accentuated by the churning, swirling synths. Apart from the ocean-like rise ‘n’ fall of “Shadowplay” and the punked-up “Interzone”, “Disorder” is the only truly rocking track on here. But even these more buoyant and catchy numbers have a sense of foreboding and melancholy, and an air-filled hollowness that makes Curtis’s sense of loneliness almost palpable.
Curtis’s voice might take a bit of getting used to. It’s uncomfortably deep and booming in a style probably inspired by David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s ‘German’ periods. But his quavering baritone only serves to highlight the fragility of a man reaching out for company and solace only to realise his own inability to relate to those around him. It’s particularly effective and affecting on the bubbling “Insight”, the simple mantra of ‘I’m not afraid anymore’ both chilling and uplifting. While his voice is often introverted to match the barren, insular nature of much of this dirge-like material, his vocals sometimes reach out, trying to feel something: ANYTHING. It’s there in his desperate pleading of ‘where will it end?’ over choppy, scraping guitars and swelling faux strings in “Day Of The Lords”; and in the slowly building anger of “New Dawn Fades”, his vocals soaring over what is one of the band’s heaviest, sludgiest grooves.
This album is a benchmark in both performance and production, and the use of electronics doesn’t sound outdated now because they are subtle and atmospheric. Okay, I admit the spooky sounds in “Disorder” remind me of Spider-man, and the chattery breaks that act as choruses on “Insight” sound like something from a late-‘70s shoot-em-up game; but these whiffs of cheese don’t detract one little bit. The electronic atmosphere gets no better than on “She’s Lost Control” where Morris’s clattering, reverbed drumming is matched by Hook’s amazingly high ‘n’ dry bass tone to create a desolate groove; while Curtis’s vocals are warped into something strange and haunting, and Sumner’s wonderfully chunky and mean ascending guitar line grinds away, buried in the mix. Sure, Bernie probably won’t be topping any hot-shot guitarist lists anytime soon, but his solo on “Shadowplay” is beautifully simplistic and soulful, and his jagged guitarwork is the essence of post-punk: providing accent and nuance while the rhythm section carries the tunes.
The band’s follow up Closer (1980) and the clutch of singles collected on Substance (1988) are also excellent releases that have cemented the band’s place in the annals of rock history. But for me, Unknown Pleasures is the spark, the smouldering ember to hold in the hand, the cinder that illuminates the dark hallways and helps warm you when the bedroom gets so cold. Unknown Pleasures is absolutely essential, and the sad thing is that these things only become truly clear in hindsight, when
it’s
all
too
little,
too
late…
***
IMAGES
Unknown Pleasures*
* images on this page were taken from the following Wikipedia page:
Unknown Pleasures
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Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Have you seen 24-hour party people, by the way?
Liked the comment about the crowded room; seemed appropriate here.
You know, one's experience of Joy Division can't help being affected by Curtis' death, like one's experience of Sylvia Plath poems can't help but be affected by her suicide. But if they didn't die, would the songs, poems, be as effective?
If you're willing to continue the theme, I'd be interested in you talking about some of the bands influenced by Joy Division.
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
Thanks for the feedback. As a music nerd, genealogies are highly interesting to me.
Yes, I have seen 24 Hour Party People. Great movie. I especially like how they were respectful, but not too precious, about Curtis's passing. The guy who wanted to be a replacement singer and said he had been practicing Curtis's dancing was hilarious.
Yes, I agree that one's experience of Joy Division is shaped by Curtis's death. What you say about Plath is also interesting, as each of these tragic figures seems to represent the same thing for guys and girls respectively.
I think Joy Division's music would always be powerful, but it takes on a certain aura surrounding Curtis's death that makes it seductive and romantic in a way. And as aweful as it sounds, I suppose his hanging himself proved that he wasn't bullshitting.
What bands that are influenced by Joy Division do you want to hear about? There are many, but some are obvious while others are not so.
Comment by Adrian
Philosophy Blog
Well, bearing in mind my lack of anything resembling musical knowledge whatsoever, I reckon I'd be interested in hearing about what you think it's important to know about.
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
Their sphere of influence is huge, because not only has their unique sound been picked up by lots of bands, particularly in the current trend of revitalising post punk, but for the very fact that they made melancholy, tortured music, which was huge in the '90s and still is today. Even bands who don't particularly sound like them, like Nirvana, owe a lot to Joy Division.
I'd be keen to do a review of Big Black actually, a band from the early '80s in Chicago who are beginning to be a big influence for a lot of bands, particularly here in Brisbane.
Comment by mrjaytee
So you mean that he is-
father of a generation
Of private school depression idols;
From Nick Cave on, they don't kill themselves -
Just tell us why they're suicidal.
He's made self-pity legitimate;
It means we'll have to face
One after another artist with integrity,
Like REO Speedwagon - sorry, I meant Hugo Race.
?
I love Joy Division more than New Order but Im not sure how much of that is Curtis input or just the influences & headspace of the rest of the band at that time
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
I also prefer Joy Division to New Order (this sentiment has become such an indie cliche). I think Ian had a big influence on the rest of the band--I recall reading somewhere that he intrduced the rest of them to Kraftwerk. But who knows? The band might have progressed in the direction New Order did with or without him.
Comment by Kylar
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
To be perfectly honest, I'm not familiar with New Order on an album basis. I like most of their singles (except that 1990 World Cup rubbish) but would be interested in checking that album out. How'saboutsa review?
And kudos for breaking the indie stereotype of liking Joy Division more than New Order. With me, its because I prefer darker, punkier things to ubeat dance pop. But with everyone else, it's because they're full of shit and want to look cool ;-P