Introduction
Track Colors
[THE MINI-ENCYCLOPEDIA WILL BE SPORADICALLY UPDATED]
UNKNOWN PLEASURES
02 - No Love Lost. 03 - Leaders of Men. 04 - Failures. DOWNLOADJoy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979). 01 - Disorder. Here you can find unknown pleasures zip shared files. Download Unknown pleasures.zip from 4shared.com 145.93 MB, Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures.zip from mega.co.nz 91.27 MB, Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures.zip from mediafire.com 71.55 MB free from TraDownload.
'Where will it end? Where will it end?'
Artist: Joy Division
Released in: 1979
Genre: Post-Punk
Label: Factory
Producer: Martin Hannett
Length: 39:20
Tracks: 10
Best Track:I Remember Nothing
Released in: 1979
Genre: Post-Punk
Label: Factory
Producer: Martin Hannett
Length: 39:20
Tracks: 10
Best Track:I Remember Nothing
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
Introduction
Talk about a group that has a following I might never understand: Joy Division, formed in 1976 and disbanded in 1980 when lead singer Ian Curtis, who suffered from epilepsy and depression, committed suicide after listening to the Iggy Pop album The Idiot, is considered the seminal post-punk band, with a testicle-crushing track record of two studio albums, each considered one of the greatest records ever made.
Curtis' psychological conditions leading to his suicide left its trace on every aspect of the band: Joy Division's music is dark, depressing and resigned, the small traces of romance found in it amounting much less to the desperation of 'your existence is the one thing that makes me keep my grasp on reality' and much more to 'it doesn't matter if we're together or not, my time left on this planet is running thin'. Their second and last album, the posthumous Closer (as in 'nearer', not 'the closing sequence'; a member of Joy Division confirms this), is so drenched in the agony of depression that it has a tomb on the cover.
However, considering that the remaining members of Joy Division disbanded and then made a new group, New Order (one of the most critically acclaimed synth-pop bands of the 80's), it could be assumed that Curtis' death wasn't the only thing the group had going for it. If you were to think that, then I'd completely agree with you, because both of Joy Division's studio albums are quite good; I'd even say they are very good.
Today, we're going to check out the more acclaimed of both albums, the debut Unknown Pleasures: with a depiction of radio pulses from the pulsar CP 1919, it has gotten itself a lofty place in post-punk and in overall music history. Let's see if it does deserve that reputation, or if everyone should be listening to Marquee Moon instead.
The Album
I know quite a few albums that have, initially, left me with a good but not amazing impression before growing on me as time went by (Sparks' records Kimono My House and Big Beat, for instance): consider Unknown Pleasures another one of those, but a weaker instance, as I'm still not that head over heels about it, at least overall as an album. To simplify what I'm going to go over later on, the quality of the songs fluctuates from 8/10 to 10/10.
![Joy division unknown pleasures zip vk Joy division unknown pleasures zip vk](/uploads/1/2/6/5/126506756/189494614.jpg)
Let's start with the sound: the album is, very appropriately, quite dark in tone and texture, but unlike the much more depressed Closer, this album is a lot more 'focused' in terms of sound. If you didn't know anything about Joy Division and listened to this album, you'd think it could have been done by anyone that was talented enough to make it (assuming you like it; if you hate it, that's another story).
That fact is not necessarily good, however: it took me multiple listens for me to like it (unlike with Closer, which I considered worth a weak to solid 9/10 on my first playthough), in part because of the sound. The opening 'Disorder', for instance, did close to nothing for me at first: the drums sounded wimpy as shit (yes I like my drums when they have CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUNCH also), the melodies and Curtis' vocals sounded kind of uninteresting, so forth and so on.
Nowadays, it still does little, and I even consider it the weakest song on the record; however, it introduces the sound, and the guitar line is not terrible. Along with that, just about all of the other songs that follow have something to offer, developing on the kind of bare style that 'Disorder' displays. One thing's for sure: if you like 'Disorder', chances are you're going to like the shit out of the rest of the album.
After 'Disorder' comes one of the big highlights, 'Day Of The Lords': the drums aren't particularly strong here either, no, but they fit well the apocalyptic mood. Along with that, the bass line doesn't provide any melody aside from a backbone (it provided a melody in 'Disorder', and that didn't work out too well), leaving the guitar and the synthesizer up in charge of the music, which is amazing. Ian's vocals begin shining on this song, modestly lamenting the end of the world.
'Candidate' is the second-weakest song; I like it just one tinge better than 'Disorder' because, while the guitar/bass melody is not very interesting, the track sounds much more moody, and this particularly dark mood helps give an extra dose of attitude to the instrumentation, which doesn't reach above 'pretty good but not something I'd put on every day', as opposed to the much less atmospheric opener.
'Insight', on the other hand, is a lot more interesting on a musical standpoint: while it also benefits from an atmospheric production, the guitar line's continual playing gives a feeling of escalation that keeps going through the entire track; yet again, the drums aren't very powerful but, this time around, the track really shows that such a 'wimpiness' is warranted to help carry the tone. Curtis' vocals stick out a lot in here: when he says 'I'm not afraid anymore', it sounds more like he's been afraid for so long he's lost the ability to be scared, and that's really damn cool.
'New Dawn Fades' is another particular highlight. It's also apocalyptic and climactic like 'Day Of The Lords', but with more of an accent on 'climactic', considering it closes out the first side. The guitar is particularly notable here: it isn't very loud, but it certainly has one hell of a presence in this track. As for the rest of the instrumentation, there's nothing I haven't already said, but the progression and nearly invisible escalation (it doesn't really escalate, but you feel something, that's what I mean) is nothing short of stellar.
The second side opens with 'She's Lost Control': it's got some strange (but interestingly strange) percussion and a really cool guitar melody, but this time around, the vocals are at the forefront, and they're very good; Curtis plays the lyrics out in the most lifelessly sincere way possible, which is not that much of a surprise, considering that the song is about a girl having an epileptic seizure. You know who else also had epileptic seizures? Yep.
We then have another highlight on the house: 'Shadowplay' begins with a solitary guitar line, which is only accompanied by drummer Stephen Morris hitting lots of cymbals, before dropping the sickest guitar line on the entire record. We already saw some fast, driving songs (like 'Disorder', somewhat), but this one is the fastest out of all of them, and it's just incredible. I know that one thing about Joy Division and New Order is that they almost never release what's on their albums as singles (even when they have great single-worthy album tracks; often, most of the singles of both those groups are only available on compilations, which can sometimes be quite a bitch), but 'Shadowplay' could have been a great single.
We're back to slightly slower songs (top-tier alliteration right there) with 'Wilderness', which is short but still quite entertaining with the cool guitar chords, the echo-heavy drums, and the bass melody. It's a bit 'nutty', but it's still very good. Meanwhile, 'Interzone' features bassist Peter Hook on vocals, and he pulls this song off really well, pointing towards what New Order would put out only two years later (even if it was guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Summer who would end up providing lead vocals for most of New Order's songs); he even gets the help of Curtis (on backing vocals) and Bernard, the latter of which provides yet another awesome guitar line.
We then get the 6-minute closer 'I Remember Nothing'. It's just as easy to dislike as 'The Overload' off of the Talking Heads album Remain In Light, because it's similar in many ways: both are slow, dreary, 6 minutes long, and the final track. However, while I like 'The Overload' better (Remain In Light is one of my 10 favorite albums ever, though, so comparison isn't fair in this case), this song is almost crushing atmospherically, as if it symbolized not only the sort of final stage in the end of the world, but also someone's complete resign from a reality that has nothing to offer to them. Kind of like The Wall, but done much better.
Conclusion
Yet again, asking whether or not you should get this album is a bit of a rhetorical and unnecessary question: most people with a passing interest in music as a hobby must have found out about it and perhaps even checked it out, and it gets regularly rediscovered by teenagers and young adults. However, here's my retort: just because lots of people will end up listening to it doesn't mean they will necessarily like it.
What do I think? Unknown Pleasures is a great album that you might not enjoy at first: if you put in the effort, you might discover a middle-tier masterpiece about existing in a world that has done nothing for you, or maybe even something more if the lyrical content, combined with Ian Curtis' fate, resonates with you much more than it does for me. Personally, in terms of depression, I relate much more to Nine Inch Nails, but if I still consider Unknown Pleasures incredible in spite of its not resonating for me, then it's got to be something good.
PERSONAL RATING: ****½
RECOMMENDATION RATING: ****
LETTERED RATING: Delta
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