Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures (Collector's Edition)
Play Unknown Pleasures (Collector's Edition)
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MOG Editorial Review
Released the year before frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide, Unknown Pleasures finds the post-punk legends creating a dark, moody piece out of necessity. From the frantic opening riffs and lyrics of "Disorder," it's clear that Curtis was a unique, idiosyncratic talent, with a disturbed, deep-voiced delivery that was brimming with both charisma and strangeness. Debut albums aren't supposed to sound this polished and fully-realized, but Joy Division had an aesthetic all their own from the get-go. Whether it was Peter Hook's distinct basslines on the eerie "She's Lost Control" or Bernard Sumner's slow-burning guitar work on "New Dawn Fades," Unknown Pleasures became the blueprint for multiple generations of post-punk. While Curtis's death was nothing short of a tragedy, our consolation is found in this flawless, one-of-a-kind set of songs.
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AMG Review of Unknown Pleasures [Collector's Edition]
Ned Raggett
All Music GuideIt even looks like something classic, beyond its time or place of origin even as it was a clear product of both -- one of Peter Saville's earliest and best designs, a transcription of a signal showing a star going nova, on a black embossed sleeve. If that were all Unknown Pleasures was, it wouldn't be discussed so much, but the ten songs inside, quite simply, are stone-cold landmarks, the whole album a monument to passion, energy, and cathartic despair. The quantum leap from the earliest thrashy singles to Unknown Pleasures can be heard through every note, with Martin Hannett's deservedly famous production -- emphasizing space in the most revelatory way since the dawn of dub -- as much a hallmark as the music itself. Songs fade in behind furtive noises of motion and activity, glass breaks with the force and clarity of doom, minimal keyboard lines add to an air of looming disaster -- something, somehow, seems to wait or lurk beyond the edge of hearing. But even though this is Hannett's album as much as anyone's, the songs and performances are the true key. Bernard Sumner redefined heavy metal sludge as chilling feedback fear and explosive energy, Peter Hook's instantly recognizable bass work at once warm and forbidding, Stephen Morris' drumming smacking through the speakers above all else. Ian Curtis synthesizes and purifies every last impulse, his voice shot through with the desire first and foremost to connect, only connect -- as "Candidate" plaintively states, "I tried to get to you/You treat me like this." Pick any song: the nervous death dance of "She's Lost Control"; the harrowing call for release "New Dawn Fades," all four members in perfect sync; the romance in hell of "Shadowplay"; "Insight" and its nervous drive toward some sort of apocalypse. All visceral, all emotional, all theatrical, all perfect -- one of the best albums ever. [Rhino's 2007 reissue contains the album in remastered form on the first disc. A second disc features the band's set -- all 12 songs -- from its July 13, 1979, gig at Factory. Ten of the songs appeared on the 1998 Heart and Soul box set. Kevin Cummins' photos, Peter Saville's design, and Jon Savage's liner notes make up the booklet.]
 "Unknown Pleasures (Collector's Edition)")
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- Release Date 1979
- Label Rhino/Warner Bros.
- Genre Alternative/Indie
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