Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures/Closer/Still [Reissues] (London)
1/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Why we're here with these lovely records in our hands and ears is clear. It's because of Closer - Anton Corbjin's much lauded biopic of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, not the band's second album. That, and Christmas. But for whatever reason Joy Division's back catalogue has been reissued, it's a good thing that now these remarkable records will be easy to come across for years and years, and unless you've got a pristine vinyl copy of the original pressing of each, signed by Ian Curtis just before he put on Iggy Pop's The Idiot and did 'the deed', they aren't going to look nicer than these bad boys. Take one out of its plastic slipcase, rub it against your cheek. Ahh. There, doesn't that feel nice?
These things now look as remarkable as the music they contain. So let's start to talk about that music. Whilst 'Disorder' has perpetual indie-disco classic status, and so does 'She's Lost Control' (on which it's bizarrely amazing how just one squeaky tom sound can raise the whole mood of the album momentarily), these are pretty much the only two moments of any pace at all on the band's debut, Unknown Pleasures (*****). Blimey. Unknown Pleasures. FAC10. The first album to be credited to the band known as Joy Division. The album with 'She's Lost Control' on it. Crikey. Now, I listen to music pretty much from dawn 'til dusk, but I don't honestly feel qualified to say anything about this record, for fear of pissing someone off. I'm not sure anyone's got the requisite knowledge and tact to approach this in the correct way. But I'll give it a go.
So, are there any other classic albums, still loved by people of all ages today, those reminiscing about post punk and kids just getting in to it, that are so brilliantly, disarmingly bleak? These questions dawn on you during the morning of 'Day of the Lords', which famously repeatedly quizzes the listener with the tortured phrase "where will it end?" ad infinitum. Sadly, that question is now a rhetorical one. But these reissues are a timely way of reappraising the start, and the middle, and not having to focus on the end. Because all the rest of it was pretty glorious.
Glorious indeed, but not because Joy Division were anything close to being the world's greatest musicians. They thrived off their own musical simplicity. They were songwriters, sound creators, not showboaters. Even Curtis has a croon that, though arresting, wobbles about all over the place. Listen to that "I remember when we were young" bit in 'Insight' or the "weeeeee" that opens 'I Remember Nothing' - far, far from spot on. But what's so majestic about his vocals is how he manages to be both incredibly deep (I'm talking in tone, subject matter is a different beast entirely) and fragile - a combination you don't stumble across very often.
You can hear the influence of this everywhere, if you think about it. The bottom string solos on 'New Dawn Fades', well, even Black Sabbath would have though twice before strolling in to the darkness that one created. The all over the place guitar twinkling that Animal Collective spend all day doing, well, just how much did they nick that from the likes of 'Candidate'? And just how many people must have tweaked the curtains to see if a spaceship had just landed when they heard the noises in the middle of 'Insight'? And how much do I myself want to pick up a guitar and join in that swirling groove on 'Wilderness'? Bigmuch.
There aren't many particularly 'nice' things about Joy Division, but one is that the primitiveness of their sound really does make one ponder hard the question of, 'f**k, why am I not doing this?'. Because I could do it. You could do it. But we don't. Records as brilliant Unknown Pleasures make you feel like a fool for that very reason. It's dated, sure, but heck, so's Mozart. Try convincing me people are making music like that these days. And no high brow strictly classical ponces seem to give a shit about that incontrovertible fact.
Surely Closer (*****) is the better of the two records though, right? Bear with me. By this point, these Mancunian lads can really play. Just listen to that guitar on the opening 'Atrocity Exhibition', surely a young Albini had an ear cocked to that stuff. And those drums, that looping bass line, even Curtis' croon is by now absolutely spot f**king on. Whereas Unknown Pleasures stunned because it came from the unknown and sounded like nothing else, Closer mesmerises because it sounds only like if the ideas contained in those Pleasures were taken to their absolute logical conclusions, and still sounded like nothing other than that. It's only the second, and the last, full length they gave the world - but what an astounding way to not only live up to the expectations set by their first record, but ultimately, to bow out. Basically, you have to buy both of them.
They're beginning to master synths on this one. Not only are they used to a brilliantly upsetting effect on the album closer 'Decades' (which is essentially the last Joy Division song, a sombre enough thought in itself), but I'm not sure anyone in the Eighties got round to making synth pop as artistically brilliant as 'Isolation' ever. Though it feels vulgar to attribute such a term to Joy Division, that one really is ass shakingly brilliant. And I'm quite certain that they wanted me to dance to it, rather than cry. Have you see Curtis dancing? He f**king loved it. And though he was primarily just the singer, with only a minimal guitar playing role, his influence on the sound can't be underestimated - after all, just look at how long it took New Order to come up with a truly great album.
Elsewhere, 'Colony' is probably the best Joy Division song that isn't totally ingrained on the public's subconscious, doing as it does neither 'the catchy thing' nor 'the sparse thing', but hitting the nail of 'the discordant thing' on the head. 'Heart and Soul' will introduce you to a world where singing deliberately off key, and holding it for that very desired effect, is perfect, and can even sound beautiful. And if you find me a bleaker sound than that achieved on both '24 Hours' and 'Eternal', then I don't want to hear it, as it might send me to a depth from which I'd never resurface.
Still (****) is a posthumous attempt to contain every Joy Division song you need to own that doesn't feature on either of their two albums proper. And whilst it doesn't manage to be that - apart from in live versions contained on the generous bonus discs of each of these three repackaged LPs, you won't find 'Love Will Tear us Apart, the beguiling 'Atmosphere' or 'Digital' - it's still a fine, if atrociously messy, affair.
And in fact, it starts off very well, showcasing Joy Division at their most typically post-punk and acting as an important document with which to understand how important all these weird singles, non album tracks and b sides were to the band's sound. Some of it's their best material, like the completely tuneless but utterly invigorating 'Ice Age' or 'The Sound of Music' (not that 'Sound of Music'), which only after much time spent with it yields and allows you to find melody amidst the clamour, the croon transforming in to something you actually want to sing along to even though the guitars will barely gift you a recognisable note all track long.
You also really get the feeling with Still, thanks to mutant funk tracks like the agitated glory of 'Glass', that Joy Division were a far more groove orientated band than their two LPs let on. Yet other parts of it are less revelatory, less relevant, and prone to drifting - 'The Only Mistake' for example. Whilst it would be nice to think that its title is a knowing, tongue in cheek reference to it being the only foot the band put wrong on record, this is both unlikely and untrue, as flat material isn't particularly hard to come across when you're listening to Still. Most of this occurs in the second, live half of the album, commencing with what is a knowingly rubbish and thoroughly unnecessary cover of 'The Velvet Underground's 'Sister Ray' ("you should hear our version of 'Louie Louie!'", says Curtis, famously, disparagingly, at its end).
What earns Still those four stars however is the fact that bits of it - 'Dead Souls', 'Ice Age', 'Glass' - will stay with you 'til your final days. It's an attempt at a catch all record, not a consistent one. It fails at doing everything, but there is always that Heart and Soul box set if you really must have every last note they ever played in a studio.
What you'll notice about Joy Division if you listen to all six of the CDs contained across these three packages is what a remarkably sloppy live band they were. Evidence for this exists on every one of the bonus in-concert disks, and also litters Still. There's off key singing of lines that jump from muffled to ear splitting within seconds ('Disorder'), playing out of time (most noticeable on 'Passover' - tee hee!) and hitting wrong notes all over the place ('New Dawn Fades' - Bernie, come on, that chord change really isn't that difficult). However, it's so refreshingly human to hear these mistakes that it doesn't make you think any less of them as a band. It's actually refreshing to think of them as remarkable people, rather than a remarkable faceless entity. We'd do well to stop mythologizing their achievements, and concentrate on the beating, very human heart that still exists at the core of everything they did.
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