There's been a lot of hype surrounding Joy Division lately. Control, a biopic that dramatically details the sad story of frontman Ian Curtis, is burning up film festival circuits worldwide. The eponymous documentary Joy Division has also premiered recently, offering a more objective look at the band's history. And now, Rhino has decided to re-issue the group's seminal albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer.
Not too bad for a band that's been defunct for almost 30 years.
It's anyone's guess as to where this newfound surge in popularity is coming from, but at least everybody can agree on one thing -- Joy Division's legacy is a deserved one. Widely recognized as one of the influential punk bands of all time, the band's sparse, primitive stylings have been a crucial influence on bands as varied as LCD Soundsystem, The Killers and Franz Ferdinand.
In contrast to other punk groups of their day, Joy Division made the revolutionary decision to emphasize space over density, and played their music much more deliberately than their than their fast-paced peers. The resulting music was, and still is, eerily spacey and frightening, made all the more dramatic for Ian Curtis' dark imagery.
Unknown Pleasures, the first of Joy Division's tragically short two-album career, is a dark and intensely focused masterpiece. Taken as a whole, it's an album of lonely desperation -- each track serves as a new dialogue, a new person trying to overcome some nameless fear. Unsurprisingly, Unknown Pleasures can be immensely depressing, but it's also awe-inspiring in its scope and creativity.
Joy Division was adept at creating an emotive atmosphere, and each band member was excellent at playing off the other. Uniquely, bassist Peter Hook usually carried the melody, while guitarist Bernard Sumner played rhythm with an occasional cathartic solo. With such a taut, expressive band to back his words, Ian Curtis' monotone vocals took on an otherworldly potency. Visceral yet deliberate, emotive yet cold, driving yet resigned, Unknown Pleasures is a work of stunning paradox.
Follow-up Closer, which unintentionally became the group's last album, was a reflection of Joy Division's ambition. Compared to the monochromatic Unknown Pleasures, it is a vibrant explosion of textures and influences.
Though the group retained its core potency and atmosphere, the use of keyboards and fuller production allowed the band to create an album that is lusher, more confident and more powerful than its predecessor. Fantastic songs such as "Atrocity Exhibition" and "Decades" could never have been as stunning as they are without the textures that the band masterfully employed. Impossibly, Closer actually topped the legendary Unknown Pleasures in its ambitiousness, scope and accomplishment.
And then, at the height of his band's career, frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide, putting a definitive end to the Joy Division legend. His lyrics, marital problems and worsening epilepsy had long been sources of concern, but nobody is sure exactly what motivated his suicide.
Turning back to the music, it's obvious that Curtis was channeling some deeply rooted desperation and angst. Perhaps it was a creative force too powerful for him to contain. Joy Division's discography lends some credence to that theory -- it is perhaps the most potent, awe-inspiring punk music ever written.
As easy as it is to get caught up in the music of our own time, these Joy Division re-issues remind us that we should always keep an open mind to the past. Some of the greatest music we will ever hear has already been written.
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