Unknown Pleasures-Joy Division

Realesed in 1979


Joy Division:
Ian Curtis:Vocals, guitar on "I remember nothing"
Peter Hook: Bass,vocals on "Interzone"
Bernard Sumner: Guitar, keyboards
Stephen Morris: Drums

Producer: Martin Hannett

Track listing:
"Disorder" – 3:32
"Day of the Lords" – 4:49
"Candidate" – 3:05
"Insight" – 4:29
"New Dawn Fades" – 4:47
"She's Lost Control" – 3:57
"Shadowplay" – 3:55
"Wilderness" – 2:38
"Interzone" – 2:16
"I Remember Nothing" – 5:53



Unknown Pleasures is an album that you hear, and you don't know what to say about it because you've never heard anything like it before. That was the case with me anyway. The cover is eye cathing enough which depicts presents exactly 100 successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered. The opening track "Disorder" starts with a simple drum beat, then Hook comes in with a bouncing bass line, then Sumner enters with his playful guitar, and last comes the late Ian who starts to sing:

I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand

Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?

These sensations barely interest me for another day

I've got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away

Not only do the brillant lyrics shock you, but Ians voice does too. Ian sings in a bass-baritone voice similair to that of Jim Morrison. The song ends with Curis shouting"got the spirit, but lose the feeling! Feeling! Feeling! Feeling!" Then you think you expect what's next, but your wrong. The next track Day of the Lords has slow gloomy feel to it. Which sets the mood for the rest of the album. But even with Curtis' dark lyrics doesn't stop the musical genuis of the bands, because their are some songs you can dance too. She's Lost Control, which was written about a girl with epilepsy(which Ian himself became diaignosed with). The track opens with the drums wich make an odd hair spraying sound between beats, the Hook enters with his minimalist bass, Ian sings verses and Sunmer feels in the gaps. New Dawn Fades is another huanting track. It starts with a gloomy bass, drums come in, then the guitar with a doom vibe comes in. Then Ian sings some of the gloomiest lyrics I have ever heard.

A change of speed, a change of style

A change of scene, with no regrets

A chance to watch, admire the distance

Still occupied, though you forget

Different colours, different shades

Over each mistakes were made

I took the blame

Directionless so plain to see

A loaded gun won't set you free

So you say
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 take much more".

Oh, I've walked on, run through fire

Can't seem to feel it anymore

It was me, waiting for me

Hoping for something more

Me, seeing me this time, hoping for something else.

Before that is Insight. Insight is unique with it's keyboards(played by Sumner) that play after Ian sings something. And between verses it sounds like laser battle going on between verses brought on by the keyboards and Hooks bass trying to keep up. After She's Lost Control plays another brilliant track plays Shadowplay. Shadowplay has greyness to it. It also has some of the most brilliant solos I have ever heard which are played by Sumner to fill in the gaps of the verses.The guitar has a creepingness to it like a spider, if that makes sense. The imagery Ian protrays in his lyrics fill my mind with images of concrete Manchester and gray skys on a muggy day. This song also showcases the brillant lyrics of Curtis, who in every right is a poet.

To the centre of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you

To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you

I was moving through the silence without motion, waiting for you

In a room with a window in the corner I found truth

In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more

As the assassins al grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor

And with cold steel, odour on their bodies made a move to connect

But I could only stare in disbelief as the crowds all left

After the next track Wilderness which goes by Morris' echoing drums and Hooks streching bass. Interzone comes on. Interzone is the fastest most energy driven track on the album. Interzone is also very strange because it not only sung by Ian but also bassist Peter Hook. The two sometimes sing at the same and interuppt eachother. I not quite sure what the song is about, because the way that Ian and Peter interrupt eachother and pick up were the other left off makes me belive that they are telling the same story of panic and running away from something. The album ends with I Remember Nothing which Ian plays guitar on.


Unknown Pleasures is one of the most important albums in
the post-punk movement if not rock music all together. If you do not own it do not let my bland review turn you off.
Unknown is the only album singer/lyricist Ian Curtis would live to see(Ian killed himself in 1980, he was 23). Although the band were generally disapointed with the way album sounded (the band wanted a more hard rock sound), Unknown will stand the test of time and continue to influenece people "looking for some thing more".

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