Hidden Gems: Joy Division’s Landmark Album Unknown Pleasures turns 40

Today in Hidden Gems we are going to talk about a landmark album by English Post-Punk band Joy Division and their debut album Unknown Pleasure.

Unknown Pleasure was released on April of 1979 and clocks in at just under 40 minutes. The album itself was influential for being very different during the post-punk era as punk music was nothing of its former self. The opening song to this album “Disorder” you can hear how the band embrace the punk scene but also moving forward to uncharted waters in rock and roll. The lyrics that singer Ian Curtis sings have this raw, straight forward yet has this I don’t know what I want, and I don’t care vibe to it:

“I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand,

Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?

These sensations barely interest me for another day,

I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away.” – Joy Division

No two songs sound or feel the same at all, songs like Day of the Lords and Shadowplay sound and lyrically utterly different to one another, Days of the Lords have a very haunting tone and vibe to it while Shadowplay has a fast, punk vibe to it.

The album as a whole is a true masterpiece and was ahead of its time. The way that Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook played off of each other and Stephen Morris drum playing just put it all together with Ian Curtis raw emotional vocals and the lyrics that are on a whole different level. One can say that this album gets better with age and I have to agree.