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Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures Audio CD

A fair review of the Joy Division "Unknown Pleasures" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Joy Division reviews here, or go back to the Joy Division tabs.

Band: Joy Division
Title: Unknown Pleasures
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-10-30
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 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 11: Dead Souls [Live] 12: Only Mistake [Live] 13: Insight [Live] 14: Candidate [Live] 15: Wilderness [Live] 16: She's Lost Control [Live] 17: Shadowplay [Live] 18: Disorder [Live] 19: Interzone [Live] 20: Atrocity Exhibition [Live] 21: Novelty [Live] 22: Transmission [Live]

one of a kind
In Rolling Stones top 500 albums of all time,"Closer" was ranked 157. Many people regard "Closer" as the best Joy Division album,but I find "Unknown Pleasures" to be the better of the two studio albums. "Unknown Pleasures" should have been in the top 25. They broke a lot of ground with this offering;from Martin Hannett's legendary production to the first use of the energy of punk channeled into a deeper lyric and sublimely dark music. The first appearance of the Gothic template in music. The way the album was recored by Hannett had only been done a few times before; isolating the drums, bass, guitar, and vocals on different channels and then mixed together. The first use of a digital delayer was used as well; a machine Martin Hannett helped design. It is well documented that besides Ian,all the other members of Joy Division didn't like the way "Unknown Pleasures" sounded, at the time, feeling like the recording lost the energy of their live sound; they also felt like the album was too dark and hard to listen to because of the blackness surrounding the tracks, but thirty years later they can all finally agree, the album is groundbreaking. The way it was recorded has made it timeless and impossible to be dated. "Unknown Pleasures" has inspired countless artists and producers since its' release. Joy Divisions dark cavernous spaces and ever darker lyrics are deeply envoking and stir the heart and soul within the listener; sublimely dark, intimate, and very haunting. A message crafted by their legendary front-man, Ian Curtis. A man who was the bands eyes and ears; a man who used a public-artform, music, to air-out his worries, problems, inner demons, medical problems, and failing marriage. The courage that took, I still can't wrap my mind around. Their music defined a time and place and is still relevent today; it still sounds modern seeing it came from the 70's. "Unknown Pleasures" is my favorite album of all time. This collectors edition comes with a live show at the Factory, Joy Divisions' home turf, on July 13, 1979. A show in front of about 400 people to promote their new album, "Unknown Pleasures", unknown pleasures it most definitely is. The same live show can be found on the "Heart and Soul" box set and the re-mastering on this collectors edition is amazing; night and day to a degree. The re-mastering on "Unknown Pleasures" is intresting; much louder with a lot of thump in the drums; different than the orginal recording. All and all, the re-mastering on the live show makes this collectors edition worth it alone. Keep in mind that "Les Bains Douches" and "Preston Warehouse" are the best live Joy Division shows, as far as sound quality goes, they can be found on Amazon; a must have since there are two stories to Joy Divisions' music; studio albums and live material. The Factory concert that comes with this edition is one of my favorite Joy Division shows, mainly because of the set-list. Songs like "Candidate", "Novelty", and "The Only Mistake" can not be found on any other official release and "Candidate" is the only song that can be found on a few bootlegs. This show is the only place you can find "Novelty" and "The Only Mistake" performed live. Also keep in mind, Joy Division were a live band first and a studio band second. Joy Division is not for the faint of heart or the casual listener; they are reserved for those who have a dark streak in their soul that needs to be tamed or fed. "We knocked on the doors of Hells darker chamber, Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in. " Ian Curtis, Decades. .

One of best rock albums ever recorded
But time distills truth. I know that's an extreme statement.

And the truth is, this album distilled rock into a minimalist art form. Add the shockingly simple but profound lyrics, and this album anniliates pretentious rock. This album can't go out of style, because it was never in style.

Dark and foreboding, Unknown Pleasures uncovers too much reality to ever cross over into pop. It's not for the trendies. And that's what makes it monumental. And one of the best rock albums ever recorded.

Prefer Over Closer
As a whole, I prefer the first CD, UnkPleasures, to the last but not to say Closer isn't fantastic also. Love ALL that is Joy Division & I've gotten pretty much everything I can get that's available. So unfortunate the band did not continue with it's original sound. However, the fact the original band members overcame tragedy, and continued playing together, is surely a testament to their musical talent and personal stamina. I'm checking out New Order now - don't know yet what the verdict will be - haven't received the music yet.

Dark Delicacies
I will play you songs of singer/lyricist Ian Curtis' depressive ills, and you will find that this doom-laded group from the 1970's Manchester, England scene had a frothy venom to all those that have ever betrayed. Come here young lass, let me prop you up on me knee, and tell you of Joy Division, a band that lacked that mushy-gushy ecstasy. "Unknown Pleasures" will make your heart break open and bleed from its opening cry of, "I've been waiting for the guide to come and take me by the hand," (from "Disorder. ") This sound helped lay the groundwork for Goth Rock and the Post-Punk genres, and is intentionally vapid and monotonic, attempting to sail a sea of shattered fantasies through a current of disdain. Miss-stepping and never diving into a sea of murky boredom, the album pulls the audience's emotions around, as if they were sailors off course, with their ships lower hull stuck into the bottom of the rocks at the mouth of the river Styx.

Although the sense of life affecting art would be much more apparent after Ian's death by his own hands shortly before the release of their second album, "Closer"-- this debut album still contains a cathartic feeling, purging out all the anger inside its audience through its dire, yet lyrical rhetoric. We are drawn in, ever so quaintly, by this fascination of one man`s depression, as a sense of emotion is acquired and contained from both this written poetry and the low-key, atmospheric instrumentals. The intrigue that the listener has of Curtis' morose gives them the strife to push on until there is nothing left but a relic of past happiness, while a stranglehold grips your throat, as if putting the ship onto the corner of a flat planet, with its bow about to fall into nothingness, and the captain's tears flowing down like candles' melting wax, as the crew's cries to repent caterwaul out of horror much alike a pleading bird of prey. More tears are shed as the wooden walls condense in, and an everlasting storm destroys the peaceful sail towards an island getaway. Then as the calm waters begin to rise exponentially like a virus, the sailors now know by the rising sun they only have damnation in a future where the light of the heavens will not shine.

This sense of paradise taken away is at its most poetic on this album, as at many times, a sense of youthful, depressive heartache is Shakespearian in a dark-and-gloomy vortex of fractured passions and disbanded ecstasies. The instrumentals accompany the flat and off-key, yet mood setting croon of Curtis, who with all the begotten in his scorched heart, cries out in miserable dire for the bleak future. Beats pulse, joy is subverted and subdued, tears are shed, and the listener feels as if they are in a Dracula story, in which the Prince of Darkness just wants someone to love-- all while a lingering sensation of hopelessness is acquired and the music fades to later reanimate, digging down into the recess of human emotion, and striking into the human consciousness, like a railroad spike.

As mentioned before the album is down n' low from its first verse, yet Joy Division is even hopeless in its name, as the Joy Divisions were a section of the concentration camps in which woman were forced into sexual labor. The metaphor behind their name can be looked at as the human dream to live long and be happy being squandered, as the sense of something better in this life now seems so sacred. Curtis sings on "New Dawn Fades, "Oh, I've walked on water, run through fire/ Can't seem to feel it anymore. " This line shows the mindset of someone who thinks they have nothing to offer the world anymore, and earlier in the song when he sings the tragic refrain," A loaded gun won't set you free/ So you say," shows that when trumpets of a brighter time fade, only the silence of persecution lies in its wake.

There is a sense of anger toward god, as well as the commonalities of worship. This untraditional approach (or is that reproach?) with mood swings of bottled up and disheartened feelings makes it radical of traditional societal roles. Yet this is not so much an anarchist rallying cry against all that is government, but rather it gives a socialistic view of love, and the roles that one takes in a relationship-- both at its most intimate, its most confrontational, and lastly, its most adoringly depressive. The last sentence may not make much sense, as many would site a grave difference between depression and beauty: yet, Joy Division gives love at its most skeletal form of heartache, a certain suppression of one's own demonic dark side. This anchor to all that is enclosed in the deepest chambers of the human soul, of which, drive Joy Division's bewitchment over even the most mirthful of humankind, so long as they go into the music with an open mind.

However, even if someone can't get into this acquired-taste cult band, one feeling is still apparent-- loneliness--however, it's their opinion if it's out of callow introversion, or a belief of accepting the world for what it can seem like often on the news programs that take on a "no news but bad news" philosophy: thus accepting a belief that life is only a dark labyrinth of pent up hurt and sorrow-- shown with true tantamount in lyrics such as those in "Candidate," of which declare this beguiled disappointment as, "I worked hard for this/ I tried to get to you/ You treat me like this. " In the end, even if the band is all about the doom-and-gloom surrounding the underbelly of humanity, there is not much that is disappointing on this album, at least aside from the too-lengthy final song, "I Remember Nothing. " As nearly thirty years after its 1979 inception, "Unknown Pleasures," is still a cacophony wrecking ball into the heart of everything that humans hold sacred.

The End

**** � (Out of 5).

Pleasurable Discovery
I saw a movie last week which featured one of the songs in it. I feel embarassed to admit I had never heard this album until this week. (The movie was called "Reprise" (amazing film!) and the song was "New Dawn Fades. ") Then I got the album the other day, put it on and was BLOWN away. The fact that more radio stations don't play the song "Disorder" even now is criminal. It's truly a classic song and the CD just takes off from there. Sure, it has dark themes and can be depressing at times. And I'll admit I've been a big fan of so-called goth music for decades, which is why I honestly feel embarassed to admit that I've never heard this album before. I've had "Closer" for years, but somehow missed this dark, beautiful, haunting gem. What a find!.

You can see a complete list of all Joy Division discography, or go back to the Joy Division tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.