#211 Joy Divison, 'Unknown Pleasures' (1979)
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With an album cover as famous as the album itself, the debut album by Joy Division was the one and only record of theirs to be released in vocalist, Ian Curtis’s lifetime. It was produced by Martin Hannett, whose production technique was so unusual and unique that it made this record sound like nothing before or after. He allowed the music space, giving it room to meander around a sonic environment. As it was their first record, the band had no idea and gave him the freedom to do what he wanted. He used digital delay, tape bounce, sounds of bottles smashing, backwards guitar, munching of crisps and even a Leslie speaker whirring inside the studio lift. On ‘Insight’ he had Curtis singing down a telephone line to give his vocals distance. Peter Hook hated the production, although later conceded its landmark sound saying that “There's no two ways about it, Martin Hannett created the Joy Division sound.”
In true Joy Division, and later New Order, style, there were no singles released from the record. A good place to start, however, would be ‘Disorder,’ which, conveniently, is the first track on the record. It sets the tone perfectly, transporting you to a Manchester goth club in the late ’70. My favourite song on the record is ‘Shadowplay.’ The guitar melody on the track is just perfect and coupled with Hook’s kick-to-the-gut bass, the song is the perfect post-punk song. When it comes to Joy Division, I think I preferred ‘Closer’ (#309), the album that followed this, but that’s not to say I didn’t love this album. It’s iconic and I can hear so many later bands in their sound. For some reason, I kept on thinking of Nirvana throughout this album. The music’s not similar at all, but I heard subtle sounds that reminded me of them. This album would have influenced so many artists, though. Radiohead comes to mind too, as does The Cure. Coincidentally, I found this quote from NME after that thought came to mind – “Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris has told NME that he imagines that the band would have gone on to sound like Radiohead, were it not for the death of frontman Ian Curtis.” After I finished listening to this album, I listened to it again, because it’s one of those records that needs to be listened to over and over to be appreciated fully. It gets better with each one, and that’s coming off of a high base to begin with.
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