JOY DIVISION | UNKNOWN PLEASURES
RELEASED: 15 JUNE 1979 ON FACTORY RECORDS
Joy Division’s defining album Unknown Pleasures is the epitome of the post punk attitude. The efforts of four working class lads from Manchester would elude to one of the greatest albums to ever come out of Britain. Drawing a direct influence from The Sex Pistols and The Buzzcocks, the bands first EPAn Ideal For Living delivered the grainy urgency of punk at the time with shouting politically driven lyrics. Though it was their debut album that showcased a more withdrawn and intense sound, influences of cult icon Ian Curtis soon became clear as he introduced the band to more exotic areas of music at the time such as Kraftwerk, this element would later come to light when a drum synth was introduced.
We caught up with famed Joy Division bassist Peter Hook, who told us a little about the songwriting process – “Ian was like a conductor, he would sit there during practise and listen to us play and pick out the bits that he liked or that sounded the best, directing the music, like he would say “Hooky, carry on playing that high riff” or “Barney, do those chords again over the top of Hooky’s riff.” That was what made him so irreplaceable.
Unknown pleasures was and still is a groundbreaking album that continues to influence bands now. Paul Morley documented seeing Joy Division as an intense, jarring experience, these words describe the record perfectly. Similar to the notorious photographs that were taken of the band in the late 70’s, the album manages to evoke the monochrome spirit of Manchester, which coincidentally has little to answer for.
Here are some Spotify Unknown Pleasures Facts…
The highest number of streams was on 18 May 2015
The album is most streamed in US and it listened to by 66% male and 34% female
Unknown Pleasures is most popular with 18-22 year olds
“Disorder” has the most streams with 9,343,291 listens