Need to remember, that's 1979 - this album is radical shift of the sound paradigm going at that time - there was nothing like it with drowned voice, heavy existential lyrics, cold synths, echo chamber drums and guitars and bass - the bass, that make post-punk post-punk. Of course there was Suicide and Banshees experimental debut albums, but it is Unknown Pleasures that put all elements together and created new sound and genre. About the lyrics - it's more like a mood image, capturing the pressure of life.
JD were a revelation to me when I first heard them in the early 00s. I had never heard anything like it. I can only imagine how different it must have sounded to people at the time it debuted.
Love Joy Division, love the drums , the bass, the sadness in the voice of Ian, the lyrics. Favorite album: Closer. Favorite songs: New Dawn Fades, and Decades.
My brother was into Joy Division and thereafter New Order and all the UK new age alternatives to punk. This music rolled a lot in my childhood home. Gives me good memories. RIP Curtis
The lyrics are about war The "Lords" in the title refer to Military Officers, of whom are are almost exclusively from a nobility background in Britain, "Lord" being a common title. This was especially true for WW1 and WW2 era The "bodies obtained" also further illustrate war, as they are combat casualties... The room with "sheets on the wall" refer to living quarters hastily set up in the field; they're tents basically Lastly the friends that "goaded you on" is a reference to the peer pressure to enlist into the military back in WW1/WW2, as the military was highly respected back then and the propaganda sold everyone the glory of valor Note too how Ian says " _where_ will it end" rather than " _when_ will it end", quite haunting Some history too: The song came out in the late 70's, many British adults still remember WW2 and the disasterous Vietnam War had just ended, you could consider this a post-punk take on the anti-war music that was prevalent at the time.
Nice review... JD is one of my all-time faves and agree with your remarks on "mood". Can't listen to it all the time, but when the mood is there, nothing better than Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, New Order etc.
Great album, great band, hugely atmospheric. Dark, and foreboding, for the most part but not all tracks. Terrible shame they were so short lived, but they left us a fantastic body of work. I still have my copy of the NME with that famous cover announcing the death of Ian Curtis. A sad loss.
Unknown Pleasures is Post Punk's Dark Side Of The Moon. Both albums are a different style of rock but give off the same vibe and feeling in my opinion.
I love JD, especially the album "Closer" but yeah... you need to be in the right mood to listen to it all the way through. (Which is what I always recommend.)
Another album in a similar vein is the album Heaven Up Here by Echo and the Bunnymen. A more recent band in the same genre, although more synths than guitar ,is The Soft Moon.I’ve only recently discovered Chelsea Wolf, I do see the comparison.
This whole album is great. Groundbreaking stuff. My daughter wears the t-shirt of the Unknown Pleasures album. So do I, but I actually like the music. She just wears it for hipster cred 🙄 this is the song I told her to say was her favorite if anybody ever asked her lol.
For more "Post-Punk" influential music, please pull up some Wire. I recommend both albums "Missing Chairs" (songs: "French Film Blurred," "Being Sucked in Again," "Heartbeat," and "I Am The Fly.") and the album "154" (songs: "The 15th," "Blessed State," and "Map Ref.41°N 93°W") - Pink Flag is well worth a listen, but it arguably their early punk phase. Glad you enjoyed JD's "Day of the Lords." You'll be seriously delighted by the JD track "Shadowplay" I believe. Love seeing your reactions!
I really liked your video on Day Of The Lords. If you want to do more Joy Division, can I suggest Twenty Four Hours, from their second (and last) album, Closer? The whole record is great, but that song is a standout. Thanks. - Chris
I listened to Joy Division a bit in the early 80s but apart from two or three songs, I never really got hooked on this band because on the one hand I don't appreciate the monotonous voice of Ian Curtis and on the other hand I find their songs generally boring. it does not speak to me whereas at the same time The Cure, The Sound, The Comsat Angels and others were also making cold music but more pleasant to my ears.
Please do New Dawn Fades of that album, to me it's the most haunting track on the entire album, much more atmospheric and gloomy than the rest (which already says something, right ?). I love the whole album, but if I ever had to choose just one song from it then it would definitely be this one.
YES!!! UNKNOWN PLEASURES. post punk at its finest New dawn fades shadowplay and i remember nothing are incredable pieces. Ian Curtis was a true lyrical genius, and you probably would like their second album Closer, its alot more gothic than Unknown pleasures
For those who like this kind of music i recommend two albuns: The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories, from Felt, and Ten Songs for Another World, from The World of Skin.
Agreed, there is a time and place to listen to JD. When it is that time and place, they are the best. Then when you want to be happy and dance, put on New Order. Love 'em both.
Justin, have a listen to the cover version Neurosis did (listen to Neurosis in general) . They have more of a metal edge and I think you'd be impressed.
Love this band!! Joy Division and producer Martin Hannett were complete game-changers when it came to early gothic rock and its open sonic texturing. Also since you really enjoy doom metal you HAVE to check out Type O Negative. They were huge in the 90s
Maybe listen to the band Therapy?, they're maybe not metal but pretty heavy, and you can hear the influence of Joy Division in their music. They even did a cover of Isolation.
I find this comparable to Tragically Hip on their Fully Completely album. I can see what Justin means about the metal aspects but I think that is in a lot of bands repertoire without making them metal bands. Justin, did you ever listen to the Tom Wilson and Dallas Green duet on Beautiful Scars? It is under LeE HARVey OsMOND.
Great album, fits a certain mood perfectly. Since you like sombre music and doom metal I think you would like these albums; Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
As several commenters mentioned below, bring on The Stranglers! "Down In The Sewer", "No More Heroes", "Nice 'N Sleazy", "Toiler On The Sea", I could go on. Check the other commenters for recommendations. I gave this a thumbs up, but Joy Division is not my thing. Keep up the great work Justin !!
I don't think that anybody can *always* be in the mood for Joy Division. Definitely no easy listening. Although I really like their music, I more often turn to New Order (what they became after Ian's death), whose music is generally much more uplifting.
A continuation of the ground breaking post punk era!!! Now.... Bauhaus is a band probably your subscribers have been screaming about, defiantly deserves a listen. "She's In Parties" and the obvious, "Bela Lugosi's Dead" takes music from post punk to Gothic Rock!!!
The room is in kabba, visited by muslims mostly. It has no portaits or statues, for a reason explained in the quran. It is covered only with black sheets on the outside of the wall. It is the house of God, the Creator. The start of it all. Then if you dont believe in God, you are weak. So there is no such room for the weak, because he doesnt believe in God. The weak refers to voluntary slaves that only belief the rules of authority, and blindly believe they are justified. *Mind this my interpretation*.
A great song… ehhh, I don’t think so. If someone put it on, fine, I’ll listen and catalog it but it’s just not doing it for me. Sure, there’s others I haven’t heard, fine, maybe they’ll be better, but I’m fine waiting till someone plays it for me. Life is short, music expansive, find your soul music. If you’re attracted to doom psd drug withdrawal music, fine, it’s not my thing. Luckily, at least I hope, I don’t have those issues deep down undiscovered, if I do, I’ll probably gravitate towards a more chill positive opposite vibe. When stressed at work I grab my Zen Jazz mix. Lonnie Liston Smith Quiet Moments Herbie Hancock Butterfly Kool and the Gang Summer Madness Three Dog Night Intro Poem: Mistakes and Illusions/ Peace of Mind You get the idea… Peace and quiet mind Music
@@Katehowe3010 Nope just ageist, which means I’m old. I have an old cartoon I did concerning New Age music, was called Old Age Music which had dinosaurs playing exotic made up instruments… a little cringy now.
This music was virtually impossible to hear until youtube and internet sharing. You had to go in whole hog on your visit to the local record shop......if they had it.
Pleased to see you do some JD. This is one of the tracks on that album that I tend to skip, along with Shadowplay (which a lot of fans like, but after a promisingly atmospheric opening it's just dull, the same 2 chords all the time....) My favorites from this album are Disorder, Candidate, Insight, She's Lost Control, and Wilderness. On their Closer album, I like everything except A Means To An End. And there are some great non-album tracks: Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere, Dead Souls....
...but now listening to this song for the first time in a while... I think I may have to revise my opinion! Maybe my headphones weren't good enough before....
@@markspooner1224 I think it's spot-on, whole Ian autor's life was dedicated to examine human suffering, and band's name resembles it clearly - it's a pure dark irony (in a way mocking human's hypocrisy), as well as debut LP's name. I'd call it punk-wise insolent, what for me really differs from kitschy nasty type of names like Cannibal Corpse etc.
Well. That was weird. Weird to me, of course, because I can't speak for anyone else - not for lack of trying, though. By far my least favourite track from a brilliant album with musical moments that are seared into my brain until all activity will cease in said organ. I really don't know how this could have happened.
Need to remember, that's 1979 - this album is radical shift of the sound paradigm going at that time - there was nothing like it with drowned voice, heavy existential lyrics, cold synths, echo chamber drums and guitars and bass - the bass, that make post-punk post-punk. Of course there was Suicide and Banshees experimental debut albums, but it is Unknown Pleasures that put all elements together and created new sound and genre.
About the lyrics - it's more like a mood image, capturing the pressure of life.
JD were a revelation to me when I first heard them in the early 00s. I had never heard anything like it. I can only imagine how different it must have sounded to people at the time it debuted.
It's still a must listen all these years later and will get better in the future
Martin Hannett was a genius
(Siouxsie & the Banshees)
Love Joy Division, love the drums , the bass, the sadness in the voice of Ian, the lyrics. Favorite album: Closer. Favorite songs: New Dawn Fades, and Decades.
Twenty Four Hours
Can't overstate the importance of producer Martin Hannett (R.I.P) to the unique sound of Joy Division.
My brother was into Joy Division and thereafter New Order and all the UK new age alternatives to punk. This music rolled a lot in my childhood home. Gives me good memories. RIP Curtis
The lyrics are about war
The "Lords" in the title refer to Military Officers, of whom are are almost exclusively from a nobility background in Britain, "Lord" being a common title. This was especially true for WW1 and WW2 era
The "bodies obtained" also further illustrate war, as they are combat casualties...
The room with "sheets on the wall" refer to living quarters hastily set up in the field; they're tents basically
Lastly the friends that "goaded you on" is a reference to the peer pressure to enlist into the military back in WW1/WW2, as the military was highly respected back then and the propaganda sold everyone the glory of valor
Note too how Ian says " _where_ will it end" rather than " _when_ will it end", quite haunting
Some history too:
The song came out in the late 70's, many British adults still remember WW2 and the disasterous Vietnam War had just ended, you could consider this a post-punk take on the anti-war music that was prevalent at the time.
This is my favorite Joy Division song, the way it builds and builds. It’s the best of their darker less poppy songs
Nice review... JD is one of my all-time faves and agree with your remarks on "mood". Can't listen to it all the time, but when the mood is there, nothing better than Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, New Order etc.
Great album, great band, hugely atmospheric. Dark, and foreboding, for the most part but not all tracks. Terrible shame they were so short lived, but they left us a fantastic body of work. I still have my copy of the NME with that famous cover announcing the death of Ian Curtis. A sad loss.
Unknown Pleasures is Post Punk's Dark Side Of The Moon. Both albums are a different style of rock but give off the same vibe and feeling in my opinion.
The eerie sound was made with Transcendent 2000 synth.
I love JD, especially the album "Closer" but yeah... you need to be in the right mood to listen to it all the way through. (Which is what I always recommend.)
My favorite is Substance, even if it's not a real album...all the songs are so good
I always found the insane chord strumming as so dark and sick at the end of the track. So beautiful man.
Please consider going through the album some more! Thanks for the upload :)
Another album in a similar vein is the album Heaven Up Here by Echo and the Bunnymen. A more recent band in the same genre, although more synths than guitar ,is The Soft Moon.I’ve only recently discovered Chelsea Wolf, I do see the comparison.
Joy Division, two years of existence, 6 months as professionnal musicians, one first album Unknown Pleasures, and a second posthume album Closer.....
Not a song I've heard before,but you just gave me a goal for the day. Recreate that guitar tone! Peace man.
Hope you get it!
That guitar tone at the start is a lot like The Velvet Underground's Venus In Furs.
This whole album is great. Groundbreaking stuff. My daughter wears the t-shirt of the Unknown Pleasures album. So do I, but I actually like the music. She just wears it for hipster cred 🙄 this is the song I told her to say was her favorite if anybody ever asked her lol.
Good song to give her lol
Yeah, same here, except I go for New Dawn Fades 😵💫
For more "Post-Punk" influential music, please pull up some Wire. I recommend both albums "Missing Chairs" (songs: "French Film Blurred," "Being Sucked in Again," "Heartbeat," and "I Am The Fly.") and the album "154" (songs: "The 15th," "Blessed State," and "Map Ref.41°N 93°W") - Pink Flag is well worth a listen, but it arguably their early punk phase.
Glad you enjoyed JD's "Day of the Lords." You'll be seriously delighted by the JD track "Shadowplay" I believe. Love seeing your reactions!
An exceptional album, and band, in every way. Very dark.
I like how you break it down after reacting, subscribed!
I really liked your video on Day Of The Lords. If you want to do more Joy Division, can I suggest Twenty Four Hours, from their second (and last) album, Closer? The whole record is great, but that song is a standout. Thanks. - Chris
love it. can't wait for your journey through "Closer"
I listened to Joy Division a bit in the early 80s but apart from two or three songs, I never really got hooked on this band because on the one hand I don't appreciate the monotonous voice of Ian Curtis and on the other hand I find their songs generally boring. it does not speak to me whereas at the same time The Cure, The Sound, The Comsat Angels and others were also making cold music but more pleasant to my ears.
Please do New Dawn Fades of that album, to me it's the most haunting track on the entire album, much more atmospheric and gloomy than the rest (which already says something, right ?). I love the whole album, but if I ever had to choose just one song from it then it would definitely be this one.
The 'meeeee' on NDF is the most powerful vocal ever delivered imo
YES!!! UNKNOWN PLEASURES. post punk at its finest New dawn fades shadowplay and i remember nothing are incredable pieces. Ian Curtis was a true lyrical genius, and you probably would like their second album Closer, its alot more gothic than Unknown pleasures
NDF is my number JD track. Exercise one (especially the pell session version) is a close second.
Try Atmosphere by Joy Division. You won't be disappointed. Listen out for the sparkly bit!
For those who like this kind of music i recommend two albuns: The Strange Idols Pattern and Other Short Stories, from Felt, and Ten Songs for Another World, from The World of Skin.
Agreed, there is a time and place to listen to JD. When it is that time and place, they are the best. Then when you want to be happy and dance, put on New Order. Love 'em both.
Good points as always.
Justin, have a listen to the cover version Neurosis did (listen to Neurosis in general) . They have more of a metal edge and I think you'd be impressed.
Yes if you like a heavier doomier version, yes
Love this band!! Joy Division and producer Martin Hannett were complete game-changers when it came to early gothic rock and its open sonic texturing. Also since you really enjoy doom metal you HAVE to check out Type O Negative. They were huge in the 90s
Maybe listen to the band Therapy?, they're maybe not metal but pretty heavy, and you can hear the influence of Joy Division in their music. They even did a cover of Isolation.
Great song live is great bad mental Heath with lead singer and sueide by the lead singer
for some reason I always considered JD, the post punk Doors. I get some of the same energy and avant jams. But that's me.
The connection between Curtis and Morrison has been made quite often
On the "greatest albums of all time" short list.
I find this comparable to Tragically Hip on their Fully Completely album. I can see what Justin means about the metal aspects but I think that is in a lot of bands repertoire without making them metal bands.
Justin, did you ever listen to the Tom Wilson and Dallas Green duet on Beautiful Scars? It is under LeE HARVey OsMOND.
my favorite band right here
That was track two right..??
Luv Luv Luv _The Lord's Day..!!_ xD
It however, always related to my heroin addiction...
ATAB..!?!
When will it end? WHEN WILL IT END?!!! 🎶♥️
Hopefully soon
Great album, fits a certain mood perfectly.
Since you like sombre music and doom metal I think you would like these albums;
Have a Nice Life - Deathconsciousness
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Glad you enjoyed this one, JP. It's definitely a darker song of theirs, but I hadn't made the connection to metal! Pretty good observation.
The DNA of future gothish sounds.
A review of the Still album called them heavy metal
As several commenters mentioned below, bring on The Stranglers! "Down In The Sewer", "No More Heroes", "Nice 'N Sleazy", "Toiler On The Sea", I could go on. Check the other commenters for recommendations. I gave this a thumbs up, but Joy Division is not my thing. Keep up the great work Justin !!
Ty! Will work on some Stranglers :)
My favourite track from a very good album - could be proto-doom (sludgy, moody etc).
I like Joy Division well enough, but I still feel like the best Joy Division song is actually XTC's "Complicated Game".
No Love Lost.
If you really want raw emotion listen to the live recorded tracks on the album “Still”. So pleading and dark.
if you like doom metal you need to hear Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis if you haven´t already
Havent heard of it, but the cover looks familiar
I don't think that anybody can *always* be in the mood for Joy Division. Definitely no easy listening. Although I really like their music, I more often turn to New Order (what they became after Ian's death), whose music is generally much more uplifting.
Reminds me a bit of Venus In Furs song
A continuation of the ground breaking post punk era!!! Now.... Bauhaus is a band probably your subscribers have been screaming about, defiantly deserves a listen. "She's In Parties" and the obvious, "Bela Lugosi's Dead" takes music from post punk to Gothic Rock!!!
...and the bodies obtained...
The room is in kabba, visited by muslims mostly. It has no portaits or statues, for a reason explained in the quran. It is covered only with black sheets on the outside of the wall. It is the house of God, the Creator. The start of it all.
Then if you dont believe in God, you are weak. So there is no such room for the weak, because he doesnt believe in God. The weak refers to voluntary slaves that only belief the rules of authority, and blindly believe they are justified.
*Mind this my interpretation*.
I always thought this sounded like a Surf rock song slowed way down.
Oh yeah! if you love doom metal Dopethrone by Electric Wizard is perfect
A great song… ehhh, I don’t think so. If someone put it on, fine, I’ll listen and catalog it but it’s just not doing it for me. Sure, there’s others I haven’t heard, fine, maybe they’ll be better, but I’m fine waiting till someone plays it for me. Life is short, music expansive, find your soul music. If you’re attracted to doom psd drug withdrawal music, fine, it’s not my thing. Luckily, at least I hope, I don’t have those issues deep down undiscovered, if I do, I’ll probably gravitate towards a more chill positive opposite vibe.
When stressed at work I grab my Zen Jazz mix.
Lonnie Liston Smith
Quiet Moments
Herbie Hancock
Butterfly
Kool and the Gang
Summer Madness
Three Dog Night
Intro Poem: Mistakes and Illusions/ Peace of Mind
You get the idea…
Peace and quiet mind Music
@@Katehowe3010
I did see Michael Hedges… RIP
@@Katehowe3010
Nope just ageist, which means I’m old. I have an old cartoon I did concerning New Age music, was called Old Age Music which had dinosaurs playing exotic made up instruments… a little cringy now.
This music was virtually impossible to hear until youtube and internet sharing. You had to go in whole hog on your visit to the local record shop......if they had it.
only made it about one third through this one nuff said
react to frances the mute by mars volta!
😎
Chelsea Wolfe another of my fave!
Love her!
Hey Justin, didn't you forget something ? 🤔😊
I've always thought this song was about the Nazis and the Final Solution.
Pleased to see you do some JD. This is one of the tracks on that album that I tend to skip, along with Shadowplay (which a lot of fans like, but after a promisingly atmospheric opening it's just dull, the same 2 chords all the time....) My favorites from this album are Disorder, Candidate, Insight, She's Lost Control, and Wilderness. On their Closer album, I like everything except A Means To An End. And there are some great non-album tracks: Love Will Tear Us Apart, Atmosphere, Dead Souls....
...but now listening to this song for the first time in a while... I think I may have to revise my opinion! Maybe my headphones weren't good enough before....
Justin, is there a style of music that you don't like? 🙂
Can't get into GG Allin or Grindcore lol
@@JustJP that just means you're rational and have taste lol!
@@JustJP I'm scared to look them up, lol
A great album but I must say that I was never comfortable with the choice of band name, to me it seems nasty.
True, however rebranding is a thing!!
It's origin is more than just nasty. It was what the sexual slaves in Nazi Germany concentration camps were referred to.
@@kuhnhan That' was my point, a really thoughtless idea.
@@markspooner1224 I think it's spot-on, whole Ian autor's life was dedicated to examine
human suffering, and band's name resembles it clearly - it's a pure dark irony (in a way mocking human's hypocrisy), as well as debut LP's name. I'd call it punk-wise insolent, what for me really differs from kitschy nasty type of names like Cannibal Corpse etc.
@@markspooner1224 Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you meant naughty with the term nasty. Obviously, it was more than that.
Well. That was weird. Weird to me, of course, because I can't speak for anyone else - not for lack of trying, though. By far my least favourite track from a brilliant album with musical moments that are seared into my brain until all activity will cease in said organ. I really don't know how this could have happened.
This is an anti-war/coming of age song. That is my opinion.
Masterpiece.
I am getting Closer and Transmission signed by original bassist 🪝.
MINDBLOWN.
- C '23