Unknown Pleasures

Infobox Album
Name = Unknown Pleasures
Type = studio
Artist = Joy Division


Released = start date|1979|6|15
Recorded = start date|1979|4|1–end date|1979|4|17 at Strawberry Studios, Stockport, England
Genre = Post-punk
Length = 39:24
Label = Factory - FACT 10
Producer = Martin Hannett
Reviews =
*Allmusic rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:7c821v7jzzca~T1 link]
*NME rating|10|10 [http://www.nme.com/reviews/joy-division/8959 link]
*"Q Magazine" rating-5|5
*Robert Christgau (A-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Joy+Division link]
*Rolling Stone rating|4|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/128872/review/5945496?utm_source=Rhapsody&utm_medium=CDreview link]
* "Spin" Rating|9|10Weisbard & Marks, 1995. p.203]
*Uncut rating|10|10
*Pitchfork Media (10.0/10) [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/46634-unknown-pleasures-closer-still link]
Last album =
This album = Unknown Pleasures
(1979)
Next album = "Closer"
(1980)

"Unknown Pleasures" is the debut album by the English post-punk band Joy Division. Released in 1979, the album was recorded and produced for Factory Records by Martin Hannett at Strawberry Studios, Stockport, England. The album did not sell well, but due to the subsequent success of Joy Division with the hit single Love Will Tear Us Apart it is now much more well-known.

Reception

The highest position "Unknown Pleasures" reached in the UK charts was #71 in August 1980, soon after the release of their second album Closer.

In 2000 "Q" magazine placed "Unknown Pleasures" at number 19 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Pitchfork Media placed 9th out of the its 100 Greatest Albums of the 1970s while the 2007 re-release received the rare accolade of 10/10. In his 1995 book, "The Alternative Music Almanac", Alan Cross placed the album in the #8 spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'.

Cover

The front cover image comes from an edition of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, and was originally drawn with black lines on a white background. It presents exactly 100 successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered, PSR B1919+21 (often referred to in the context of this album by its older name, CP 1919). [Wozencroft, Jon. " [http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue10/outoftheblue.htm Out of the Blue] ". "TATE ETC", Issue 10, Summer 2007. Retrieved on June 28, 2008.] The cover design is credited to Joy Division, Peter Saville and Chris Mathan. The back cover of the album contains no track listings, leaving a blank table where one would expect the listings to be.

The original LP release contained no track information on the labels, nor the traditional "side one" and "side two" designations. The ostensible "side one" was labeled "Outside" and displayed a reproduction of the image on the album cover, while the other side was labeled "Inside" and displayed the same image with the colors reversed (black-on-white). Track information and album credits appeared on the inner sleeve only.

Groove notations

European pressing: Near the inner groove of the "Outside" is etched in script: "This is the way" and the "Inside" has "Step". Both lines are taken from the song "Atrocity Exhibition", which was released on the follow up Closer album, a year later.

US pressing: The "Inside" reads "I've been looking for a guide", an altered version of the opening line of the song "Disorder"." [http://www.worldinmotion.net/joydivision/discography/albums/1979/unknownpleasures.htm Unknown Pleasures] ". Factory Records. Retrieved on June 28, 2008.]

Reissues

The album, along with "Closer" and "Still" was remastered and re-released in 2007. The remaster came packaged with a bonus live disc, recorded at The Factory, Manchester, on July 13, 1979.

Track listing

Listen
filename=Shadowplay sample.ogg
title="Shadowplay"
description=Sample of Joy Division's "Shadowplay" from "Unknown Pleasures"
format=OggListen
filename=Joy_Division_She's_Lost_Control.ogg
title="She's Lost Control"
description=Sample of "She's Lost Control" from "Unknown Pleasures"
format=OggAll songs written by Joy Division.

ide one: "Outside"

#"Disorder" – 3:32
#"Day of the Lords" – 4:49
#"Candidate" – 3:05
#"Insight" – 4:29
#"New Dawn Fades" – 4:47

ide two: "Inside"

#"She's Lost Control" – 3:57
#"Shadowplay" – 3:55
#"Wilderness" – 2:38
#"Interzone" – 2:16
#"I Remember Nothing" – 5:53

References

ources

*Curtis, Deborah. "Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division". London: Faber, 1995 (2nd ed. 2001, 3rd ed. 2005). ISBN 0-571-17445-0
*Ott, Chris. "Unknown Pleasures". (33⅓ series) New York: Continuum, 2004. ISBN 0-8264-1549-0
*cite book
last= Weisbard
first= Eric
coauthors= Craig Marks
title= Spin Alternative Record Guide
publisher= Vintage Books
year= 1995
isbn= 0679755748

External links

* [http://www.iancurtis.org/records/unknownpleasures.html "Unknown Pleasures" in detail]
* [http://www.joydiv.org/up.htm Information including a scan of the original image used for the cover]