Reissues

Joy Division

Joy Division

Joy Division

Thirty years ago, Joy Division created a sound that’s been imitated ad nauseam but never duplicated. Their influence is still heard today – and seen, in Anton Corbijn’s new gauzy black-and-white Ian Curtis biopic, Control – and apparently that’s reason enough for these sleek, deluxe double-disc reissues in three appropriate shades: black, white, and gray. Rhino’s also offering two Joy Division ring tones, illustrating with perceptible irony what Curtis might have envisioned if he’d stuck around. The Manchester quartet’s short career yielded just three LPs on Factory Records, and 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures was the only one Curtis saw released. 1980’s equally spare Closer and excellent 1981 rarities release Still marked Joy Division’s end, though Still‘s “Glass” and “The Only Mistake” sure sound promising for 1981. The added live recordings, one per disc (plus one sound check), come with fairly shoddy sound quality, but you get to hear the band expanding from the polish of the studio into a rhythmic beast at times. A 1980 University of London gig finds the band jamming through “Insight” and “Isolation.” Their swan song, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” shows up only in the live sets (both in February 1980), and its performance sounds magical, as does Curtis’ subdued croon. He already sounds resigned. It’s time now to praise Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris. Hook’s bassline birthed Joy Division songs fully formed, and live, he and Sumner trade lines with awkward ease, while Morris keeps it primal. The slightly rowdier 1979 concert at Manchester’s famed venue, the Factory, finds a band still getting its footing, but by the 1980 concert at High Wycombe, they sounded like a rock band. Liner notes suggest the remaining band members weren’t happy with the studio recordings at the time, but now, they sound otherworldly.

(Unknown Pleasures, Closer)

(Still)

This article appears in December 14 • 2007.