Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979)

“Unknown Pleasures” by Joy Division (1979)
Release Date: June 15, 1979
Produced by Martin Hannett
Genre: Post-Punk
Label: Factory

Chart Positions: #1 (New Zealand, Holland), #71 (UK), #82 (Australia), #85 (Italy), #1 (UK Indie Albums)
Certifications: Gold (UK)
Awards: N/A

Singles and Chart Positions: N/A
 Singles Certifications: N/A
Other Charting Tracks: N/A
Best Tracks: “She’s Lost Control,” “Disorder,” “New Dawn Fades,” “Shadowplay” but realistically all tracks on this album are outstanding!!!



Trivia: “Unknown Pleasures” is the debut studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 on Tony Wilson's Factory Records. It followed an abandoned session for RCA Records, and was recorded and mixed over three weekends at Strawberry Studios, in Stockport, England in April 1979 with record producer Martin Hannett. The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville.

The album cover perfectly captures the raw emotion and attitude of the album. The ten songs inside, quite simply, are stone-cold landmarks, the whole album is a monument to passion, energy, and cathartic despair.

Factory did not release any singles from the album, and it did not chart (at the time) despite the relative success of the group's non-album debut single "Transmission". “Unknown Pleasures,” which sold more than a million copies worldwide during it's release year, has gone on to receive sustained critical acclaim as a pioneering and influential post-punk album. The album did eventually chart having made it to #1 in New Zealand and Holland.

Though there weren’t any singles released from the album it does include several classic Joy Division tunes including “New Dawn Fades” a song which has been popularized from it’s inclusion in several films such as “Heat,” “House of Wax” and “The Equalizer.” John Frusciante (former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist) has recorded the song and most widely known, Moby, did an outstanding version that received airplay and is one of his best-known recordings.

"New Dawn Fades" (1979)

“She’s Lost Control” has been highly popular, so much, that one would think the song was released as a single. Along with  “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” “She’s Lost Control” is Joy Division’s signature tune. A re-recording of the song was released on a 12” single in 1980 with more electronic parts added. This was one of the last recordings released by Joy Division.

Sadly “Unknown Pleasures” is only one of two albums that were completed and released by Joy Division. On the morning of May 18, 1980, lead singer Ian Curtis, watched Werner Herzog's "Stroszek," played Iggy Pop's The Idiot, and then hung himself in the kitchen. This was the end of a band that was on the rise and with only two albums has become one of the most influential bands in the history of rock music.




Joy Division (1979)




JOY DIVISION

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