Band: Joy Division
November 2nd 2008 15:06
Curtis was Joy Division’s soul. His personal demons would eventually overtake him, as his personal problems and battle with epilepsy overwhelmed his enormous talent for stark, brutally honest songwriting and literary allusion. The band would move on without Curtis, adding guitarist/keyboard player Gillian Gilbert (then Morris’ girlfriend and later, his wife) to become the vastly successful New Order.
Yet Joy Division’s legacy still looms large. Start out with their first LP, Unknown Pleasures. Produced by the notoriously cruel but masterful Martin Hannett, the debut record details a world spinning hopelessly out of control, where “lights are flashing, cars are crashing” and assassins lurk and William Burroughs is quoted. It’s a fierce, menacing sound. The band is to be taken seriously from the opening notes, and Curtis establishes his gifts for creating arresting pathos amidst desperation and gloom.
If the debut is bleak, the second album, Closer, is devastating. Curtis details his own fragile emotional state as the band uses a decidedly more subtle approach. Everyone has failed Curtis--even the Almighty, apparently, as the bitter lyrics to "Colony" demonstrate: "Dear God in his wisdom took you by the hand / God in his wisdom made you understand." A recording not for the faint of heart.
Criticized for its shoddy sound, partially live recording Still was released soon after Curtis' death. The album is still essential for it's B-sides half. These songs are at times more direct than the ones on the official albums; "Ice Age" careens with punk attitude, while "Dead Souls" details the dearly departeds' sickening siren call.
Singles collection Substance rounds out the canon. During post punk, most bands were still releasing non-album tracks with regularity. Substance includes some of Joy Divisions best songs, including the brilliant, sinister "Transmission" and the band's only stateside hit, "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
These days, biopics are being produced, remastered CDs are available, and the band is regularly re-evaluated by an adoring public. New Order subsequently sold more records (and, depending upon the temperament and negotiation skills of Sumner and Hook, may continue to survive well into the future).
But Joy Division stands as the perhaps the greatest band of the post punk era.
| 37 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
