Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979) (1 Viewer)

What's that one? Some kind kind of boot?
Yeah, it’s a bootleg of various demo recordings. This is called Warsaw but I’ve seen the same songs/tracklisting under other names too.

 
This album is grand.I won't be listening to it again
 
I like Closer better as an album but Unknown Pleasures maybe has the higher high points (New Dawn Fades, Disorder and the like).. The version of Shes' Lost Control on the album is knocked into a tin hat by this one they put on a single a few months later though:
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what do you make of the single version?

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a bit beefier, a bit more industrial, still not exactly a "rock" sound though.


Finally listened,I'd forgotten about that version.

Seems like joy division had an endorsement with the shit drum sound company.

I'm with Pete on the comedy bass playing too. No need to play that high,possibly wouldn't have sounded as bad if he sang a little higher,but he didn't.

Shame,because I do kind of like them,but they just don't come close to the potential
 
the best example i can think of of how hit and miss Hannett's production
could be would be Novelty on the B side of Transmission - it's a mess.
but the more punk demo is great
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEyKgt9eaqk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipBURvpouYY

is there another studio version ? I can't remember.
the picture on the 'Warsaw' demo version is a 90's
CD that rounds early studio material - up to first half of 1978 -
except for the An Ideal For Living EP.
this was widely circulated and I even saw it in Tower.
I thought it was a boot but apparently not.
despite the WARSAW name on the CD the band
changed it's name to JD before most of material was recorded.
the Warsaw demo was recorded in May '78 as a demo
for RCA who owned the tracks.
 
I'm not sure what to think about this album. Like, there's no doubting it's merits, but I think those merits are somewhat amplified in the context of it's timing, it's being innovative for it's time, etc, and now, in hindsight, the obvious influence it's had on music since.

There's only one real standout song for me, and that's 'Shadow Play'. I find some of the songs borderline unpalatable ('She's lost Control', 'Candidate'). Maybe because I didn't come to it as an angsty teenager, looking for someone who understood me, I can't get all gushing about it.

And how much did the death of Ian Curtis add to Joy Division's legendary status? More than a little, I'd suggest.

I read Bernard Sumner book a couple of years ago. An interesting enough read, the petty digs at Peter Hook aside, but the most interesting part was about Joy Division, and more specifically, about Curtis. It was nice to read someone talking about him in human terms, rather than as this somewhat mythical figure who was dead before any of us were old enough to know who he was, really. But he was hugely unstable. Like, you'd wonder if he lived in today's time, would the help he needed have been there. Probably not, but the way Sumner talked about him, it was as if, everytime they said goodbye to each other, he was unsure if he'd see Curtis again.

Point being, there's songs and there's albums. Then there's songs and there's albums from mythical, no longer with us, acts. And Joy Division were always that latter category. So it's good that people are actually extolling the music on its own merits in this thread.

It's not for everyone though. I suppose they're one of those bands that have some songs that are very accessible and universally liked, but others that are of an acquired taste (of sorts). I enjoyed listening to this album. I probably knew 70% of it before, but it's good to hear it as a complete piece. But I doubt I'd put it on in the car, or going for my lunchtime walk. It was album club that made me spend time with it.

I'd probably be tending towards a 3.5 out of 5 based on how I feel about the songs themselves. I'll bump it to 4.5 because of the clear influence they've had on other bands I really like, and who might not have existed were it not for Joy Division.

So, 4.5, rounded down to 4.
 
RE my comment on the song Novelty earlier (B-side of Transmission):
the Warsaw version upload had poor muffled sound so i went looking for
a better version and found this early live version from Middlesbrough 1977(!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=36K6GOx-eSc

Ian vocals are the main feature here - really growled as much as shouted.
proto grindcore almost !
Ah, JD the band that keep on giving...

RE Scutter: Yes, as I've already said Ian Curtis' death and the band's music
should be viewed separately.
his widow thought his music was great but that he was very controlling as a husband.
if she can make the distinction then so should the rest of us.
a load of rubbish has been written about Ian Curtis by people who didn't know
him well or at all.
i think the music speaks for itself with out myth making or hero worship.
(if he hadn't gotten epilepsy and had to take medication which completely
changed him he would been OK)
 
i think the music speaks for itself with out myth making or hero worship.

it's thumped, I was being flippant, and a prick, cos thumped is for pricks.

But the bit I've quoted there is the main thing I take from this thread. People arguing on the merits of the music, and the music alone, and I like that.
 
it's thumped, I was being flippant, and a prick, cos thumped is for pricks.

But the bit I've quoted there is the main thing I take from this thread. People arguing on the merits of the music, and the music alone, and I like that.
I think it’s a lot easier to separate the legend from the music for Unknown Pleasures but harder for Closer. Between the albums, he developed epilepsy, started on the medication, had his affair, etc. I can’t remember when his daughter was born but his biography and Closer pretty much go hand in hand. And it’s a much heavier album because of it. I’ve never been able to listen to that one unbiased.
 

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