Best Joy Division Album (not New Order, please)

  • Thread starter punky bunnymen bunnyfan
  • Start date

Best Joy Division Album (not New Order, please)

  • Unknown Pleasures

    Votes: 19 38.0%
  • Closer

    Votes: 16 32.0%
  • Still

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Substance

    Votes: 6 12.0%
  • Permanent

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Heart and Soul

    Votes: 4 8.0%
  • Preston February 28 1980 (live)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Les Bains Douches (live)

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Fractured "box set" (live)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Re-Fractured "box set" (live)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Let the Movie Begin (live)

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Peel Sessions (radio)

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Complete BBC Recordings (radio)

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Before and After/ The BBC Sessions (radio)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Any other compiliation/single: ie.. Licht Und Blindheit (also known as)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    50
P

punky bunnymen bunnyfan

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That's a very hard question, since both their albums are great, and, IMO, two of the greatest albums ever. But at the end of the day I would have to choose Closer. That was the first Joy Division record I ever heard, and i was blown away instantly. I still remember how it happened, many years ago. I read an article about them in a rock magazine, and I was very interested so I went and bought the cassette "Closer". I couldn't listen to it immediately, because there were some guests in the flat and they were talking to my mother, and even though I played side A in my room, I couldn't hear it well because of the noise of people talking, and I couldn't turn the volume on - so I gave up, even though the cassette came to the end of side A. But that night, with door closed and nobody to disturb me (the real way to listen to music, esp. such as theirs), I put the cassette back again (it was now side B, obviously). And... it was like nothing I had ever heard before!! It was... like a spiritual experience, probably what people feel in a religious trance! I froze from the moment I heard the first sounds of Heart and Soul, continued with Twenty Four Hours, but that was nothing compared to what I felt when I heard The Eternal...that song is not just sad, it's beyond that... it made me shiver... but on top of it all, at the end came the best song - Decades... I can't even describe what I felt when I heard Decades! "We knocked on the door of hell's darker chambers, pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in..."

Why did that strike such a cord with me? I had not actually knocked on the doors of hell, I had had trouble and pain in my teenage life, but nothing close to the actual hellish experience... but I was aware of the horrible things that people have actually done to each other, and are still doing, since the dawn of time, and I've always felt horrified and deeply disturbed by those stories, I couldn't help thinking: What if it had happened to me, if something like that happens to me? and I couldn't help feeling as if those things actually happened to me. I've also wondered many times: how can people do these terrible things, and aren't they just the same as me and everyone else? I think that Ian Curtis was the kind of person who felt deeply not just about the problems in his own life, but about the things that did not happen to him directly, about the horrors and pain and dehumanization - therefore his interest in history, especially in the history of Third Reich, that so many people have misunderstood. That's why the music of Joy Division is the deepest and darkest music possible, but listening to them never made me depressed, just the opposite - you could say it's a catharsis.

And why 'Closer'? I think it's because it sounds darker and, somehow, more otherwordly than Unknown Pleasures or Joy Division's singles, even though I really love those too. I think they pushed the boundaries even further with Closer. And it's one of those albums where every track is great. I remember I didn't like Atrocity Exhibition at first, but that was probably because it was too disturbing, not just lyrically but musically as well; but later I started loving it for the same reason.
 
Good answer, as they say on Family Feud. Seriously, I also picked Closer, and it was my first Joy Division tape, too. I can't add anything to what you wrote, just that I'd never heard anything like it, and there are still times when it is the only music that will do. I might have picked Unknown Pleasures, but Closer was first. I had asked at the store which one was recommended, my friend Gary worked there, and his reasoning was that I should get Closer because everyone likes Unknown Pleasures. :p His reasoning was that I would hear Unknown Pleasures or probably buy it eventually anyway, so he thought I should start with the slightly more obscure, Closer, and he said it was his favorite anyway.

The reason I wanted to hear Joy Division in the first place is because I had played this tape, of some friends jamming, for another friend and he said the music on the tape sounded like Joy Division, and so I really wanted to hear who we sounded like. Which turned out, of course, that we were not "as good" as Joy Division ;) but then who is?
 
I voted for Unknown Pleasures. I'm still not sure if it's their best, but it's my favorite. I don't want to get all sappy (which I would) and try to explain why I adore it, so I won't.

I'm considering forming an all female Joy Division cover band. Nobody can do Ian's dance like me...and, well, Ian.
 
"Closer" is the better of the two studio LPs.

Of the choices, I'd go with "Substance" (17-track version) since it shows off the full spectrum of Joy Division's music, from the harder punk edge to their precocious use of synths.

I hear less of Martin Hannett on "Substance", which is good and bad. Hannett was brilliant, but I suppose I prefer Joy Division a little more without his influence-- not that you could separate it out, but relative to "Unknown Pleasures" anyway-- because the four guys just playing their instruments was more powerful than the studio-bound material. You hear them more on "Substance" and also on sides 3 and 4 of "Still", the two live albums, and the live tracks on "Heart and Soul".

"Closer" saw the best of the band and the best of Hannett coming together, which is why I think it's the best.
 
closer. i have it on cassette in this big old box that factory used to produce, it's nearly the size of a video cassette case.
it seemed that everything was really coming together then, the sound & production & not forgetting art production. Quite a haunting sound and look...should get the cassette out one day, to play it again; which I haven't done for years.
 
i dont mind new order but joy division sucked

Blasphemy! I really hope you are being sarcastic. New Order..pfft. They've ruined some of the best JD songs and have allowed The Killers to cover Shadowplay for the Control soundtrack. I declare!
 
I thought that threads got archived if they haven't had posts within the last 3 months? Anyway, I'm glad that this one is still open; I was just about to post a similar poll. I'm also glad to see that my vote a year ago is the same one I'd make today. :guitar:

And look! It was started by someone who now goes by a different username. :rolleyes:
 
It is good. So much stuff on there. But I have to go with Substance, which I don't even have anymore.

:mad:
 
I will have to say that Closer is my favorite but, I listen to Substance & Unknown Pleasures quite often.

I also collect books on them based upon this list.... http://www.joydiv.org/books.htm

I do have quite a few of these too, which are treasures I hold dear to my heart, just like Morrissey's Peepholism & all of my Echo & the Bunnymen collectibles.
 
I thought that threads got archived if they haven't had posts within the last 3 months? Anyway, I'm glad that this one is still open; I was just about to post a similar poll. I'm also glad to see that my vote a year ago is the same one I'd make today. :guitar:

And look! It was started by someone who now goes by a different username. :rolleyes:

It's not a bad poll to revisit even if only to mention that the re-released, remastered editions of the albums are excellent. Normally I don't go in for remasters but I am always willing to waste more money on Peter Saville artwork so I went ahead and plunked down the money like a slave.

In the event a wise choice: the remasters were good enough to justify the blow to my self-esteem. The band sounds slightly crisper and the aural spaces Hannett carved out are even more expansive and haunting.

Now the question is, do I waste even more money buying the 180g vinyl versions to go with my CDs? They do come in the original sleeves...
 
It's not a bad poll to revisit even if only to mention that the re-released, remastered editions of the albums are excellent. Normally I don't go in for remasters but I am always willing to waste more money on Peter Saville artwork so I went ahead and plunked down the money like a slave.

In the event a wise choice: the remasters were good enough to justify the blow to my self-esteem. The band sounds slightly crisper and the aural spaces Hannett carved out are even more expansive and haunting.

It's funny that you should bring this up--I was just at the store on Sunday debating whether to buy them. I decided not to, for now, anyway.

Now the question is, do I waste even more money buying the 180g vinyl versions to go with my CDs? They do come in the original sleeves...

Well, 2 of the 3 are a damn sight more interesting to look at than that NO Substance poster that you said you had!
 
It's funny that you should bring this up--I was just at the store on Sunday debating whether to buy them. I decided not to, for now, anyway.

You can live without them. But if you don't waste your money in acts of pointless consumption the terrorists win. Do you want that on your conscience?

Well, 2 of the 3 are a damn sight more interesting to look at than that NO Substance poster that you said you had!

It made sense in context. The contrast between the simplicity of Saville's design nicely offset the raw sensuality of my Tawny Kitaen poster, a scorching objet d'art that left the paint on the wall blistered and blubbled even before I'd gotten the last corner thumbtacked. Boy could that girl decorate the hood of a car.
 
You can live without them. But if you don't waste your money in acts of pointless consumption the terrorists win. Do you want that on your conscience?

Come to think of it, NO! :eek:

It made sense in context. The contrast between the simplicity of Saville's design nicely offset the raw sensuality of my Tawny Kitaen poster, a scorching objet d'art that left the paint on the wall blistered and blubbled even before I'd gotten the last corner thumbtacked. Boy could that girl decorate the hood of a car.

Mmmm, Tawny. Now if Saville had put her on the cover of something, Factory would have had a bigger hit than "Blue Monday."

2251104080060110311LuEsMc_ph.jpg



Whoops, sorry about that last one!
 
Come to think of it, NO! :eek:



Mmmm, Tawny. Now if Saville had put her on the cover of something, Factory would have had a bigger hit than "Blue Monday."

2251104080060110311LuEsMc_ph.jpg



Whoops, sorry about that last one!

She could have taken Gillian's place in the New Order lineup in 1980. THAT would have sold more records, definitely. Ad in NME: "Sexy, shapely, feline keyboardist wanted. 36D (pref. fake) and knack for posing on cars a must; post-gig gangbangs a plus; you love Can, Kraftwerk and Eno but wanna ROCK."
 
She could have taken Gillian's place in the New Order lineup in 1980. THAT would have sold more records, definitely. Ad in NME: "Sexy, shapely, feline keyboardist wanted. 36D (pref. fake) and knack for posing on cars a must; post-gig gangbangs a plus; you love Can, Kraftwerk and Eno but wanna ROCK."

Yeah, Gillian didn't exact fit that description, did she?
 
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