~music Listening Club 17 - Unknown Pleasures
17 weeks in and we have another classic record discussion: Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division!
Unknown Pleasures is the debut studio album by English rock band Joy Division, released on 15 June 1979 by Factory Records. The album was recorded and mixed over three successive weekends at Stockport's Strawberry Studios in April 1979, and was produced by Martin Hannett, who incorporated a number of unconventional production techniques into the group's sound. The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville. It is the only Joy Division album released during lead singer Ian Curtis's lifetime.
Factory Records did not release any singles from Unknown Pleasures, and the album did not chart despite the relative success of the group's non-album debut single "Transmission". It has since received sustained critical acclaim as an influential post-punk album, and has been named as one of the best albums of all time by publications such as NME, AllMusic, Select, and Spin.
Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Unknown Pleasures! Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!
If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.
Don't forget to nominate and vote for next week's obscure record in response to this comment!
Please reply to this comment with all nominations for Week 18 of the listening club then vote on submissions you would like to see chosen. Votes and nominations will still count until minutes before the eighth week's thread is posted.
Feel free to "sell" your nominated record in your comment. By the nature of obscure nominations, there probably won't be many others who are familiar with what you mention. Tell us why you think we should hear it, if you'd like! If your record is picked, this will be included in the OP of the next listening club.
Please make sure your record includes a freely available stream or download. Probably your best bet is asking yourself "is this on Spotify or YouTube?" Other platforms work too, but I doubt too many winning nominations would be DatPiff exclusives.
Remember: Your record should not be certified Gold or higher by the RIAA. Here you can check the certification status of your nomination, if you're unsure.
I'd be curious to hear from someone who can contextualize this album for me. It's treated as a landmark, greatest-of-all-time album, and I've listened to it a couple of times and failed to connect with it (outside of mishearing the opening line to "Disorder" and thinking the song was an out gay anthem far ahead of its time).
Part of the reason is probably because I'm listening without any background knowledge on the band, the time period and culture in which the album was released, and its impact on music. Thus, I'm sure there's a whole lot of relevant information that I'm missing that would help me listen to it in a different light. Can anyone speak to its significance?
I thought that for the longest time too!
I don't know if I can really explain what makes this so great to me because it's very personal to me and I can't disconnect it from the sleepless nights where my insomnia was the worst it had ever been and I had it looping. Still, I think this does a good job at describing the mythology surrounding it. I can understand how this might be a bit uncomfortable for some, Ian Curtis killed himself not long after the release of this album and the way people talk about that in relation to the music can often look like glorification, but I think it's still worth reading about.
As for the music itself and its historical relevance, reading how others feel will probably help a lot, maybe just look up some positive reviews to see that. I like this one from theneedledrop for one that captures elements other than the emotional core that most people focus on. It's also, in my opinion, the gold standard for production in rock and rock-adjacent music. It's difficult to describe why this is the case, because these things are subtle compared to any other element of the music, but that vulnerability wouldn't come out nearly as well if the bass and drums sat anywhere else in the mix.
That's if that's the approach you want to take. I thought this album was only okay at first myself, but learning about it isn't what changed my mind. It took being at the lowest point in my life and falling into it for that to happen. I'm not saying you have to be depressed to get it or anything, but I think it pairs too well with empty despair to not mention that aspect.
Both of those links were exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for providing them, and for giving your own take. I'm going to put the album into my music rotation this week and see what shakes out for me after a couple of days.