Hooky and Sumner have always said they didn't like Unknown Pleasures but I think it stands up very well. Closer has far better sound quality but the primitiveness of Unknown Pleasures adds to its qualities IMHO, making the landscape even starker. Discuss.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Yeah, it's all good. But I don't think I've ever got through a JD album in one sitting. Each track is an amazing, admirable construction that bears little relation to the surrounding ones, I suppose. And heavy.
I've ended up playing Warsaw stuff like this more often, just cause it's got that Stooges/Krautrock combo energy and style.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Well, it's all good. I'll take any studio album from Unknown Pleasures through Low-Life (although the latter is less interesting for me). But when it comes to listening all the way through, I am more likely to do that with Unknown Pleasures than Closer.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
It's difficult to call. But I think that Unknown Pleasures shades it, as it's more cohesive and atmospheric as a whole.
The problem these days is that I rarely listen to whole albums any more, like 99% of the music listening planet - so we're told.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
During an 8 hour flight I was able to listen to both fully back-to-back. Overall, I would rate Unknown Pleasures slightly higher as the overall atmosphere (no pun intended) is better and that the full album just has a better flow.
That said, there are no 4 better tracks than the final ones on Closer - Heart & Soul, Twenty Four Hours, The Eternal and Decades.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Geoffrey de Ste. Croix wrote: In terms of their quality, I cannot differentiate between the two albums at all, but I will always listen to Unknown Pleasures rather than Closer, as I find the latter overwhelmingly, almost unbearably sad.
I prefer live versions of the Closer tracks. They seem, well, less dead.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Many excellent replies, thanks. Maybe in the end it's a chalk v cheese comparison because the albums are very different, due to the first album being done over 3 weekends (which meant the band had little input) whereas Closer is a true group effort and closer to Curtis's final vision.
However, I think the songs on Unknown Pleasures, while uneven, probably score higher purely as songs. There aren't many better opening tracks in musical history than "Disorder", then you have the triple whammy of New Dawn Fades, She's Lost Control & Shadowplay.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Land Waster wrote: It's difficult to call. But I think that Unknown Pleasures shades it, as it's more cohesive and atmospheric as a whole.
The problem these days is that I rarely listen to whole albums any more, like 99% of the music listening planet - so we're told.
This thread has given me cause to do that again with JD's albums.
Pity is that their never-happened next album would have been massive. Love Will Tear Us Apart plus Ceremony plus ? I can't think of any album ever ever ever with two songs better than that.
The cover of Unknown Pleasures is probably my favorite thing produced in the 20th century. I know it's on loads of shirts and mugs and shit now, but that doesn't diminish it's perfection in my eyes.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Inspired by this thread, I am listening to Joy Division at work using my Google Music library. If you haven't used that before, they have photos for each artist in your catalog. This is the photo they use for Joy Division:
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Ha ha, must be from a recent "Joy Division Celebrity Blues Cruise" around the Mediterranean.
I feel like Closer is probably the better album by a very small margin, but as said above, I listen to Unknown Pleasures more often because Closer is so heavy and intense. I have to be in the right (wrong?) mood.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Pity is that their never-happened next album would have been massive. Love Will Tear Us Apart plus Ceremony plus ?
Both are masterpieces, obviously, but Closer just edges it for me. It is just exquisitely sad.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Renart wrote: Ha ha, must be from a recent "Joy Division Celebrity Blues Cruise" around the Mediterranean.
Like Renart, I think Closer, but it's not always an enjoyable listen. It's very claustrophobic and the last few tracks are really bleak.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Unknown Pleasures for the reasons set out above. Disc three of the Heart and Soul box set, which collects up the singles and random tracks like Komakino gets played as often as the first two, which broadly cover the two albums and extras in chromological order.
Does anyone else prefer New Order to Joy Division?
I love them to the point that I've; (a) seen them 28 times; and (b) kept count.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Geoffrey de Ste. Croix wrote: In terms of their quality, I cannot differentiate between the two albums at all, but I will always listen to Unknown Pleasures rather than Closer, as I find the latter overwhelmingly, almost unbearably sad.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
Benjm wrote: Does anyone else prefer New Order to Joy Division?
Although I liked what I heard of Warsaw, I never got into Joy Division and "The Holy Bible" seemed to do everything that Joy Division were doing much better. I appreciate that the Manics are probably enormous fans of JD and were probably influenced greatly by them.
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Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures v Closer
I went back to Power, Corruption, and Lies quite recently and felt that on several tracks the tempo was far too fast, like a 33rpm record speeded up to a 45. I also think the drums sound intrusive compared to how Hannett treated them.
However "Your Silent Face" is gorgeous, as beautiful as anything Joy Division did. "Leave Me Alone" is also a fine track.
My favourite ever New Order track is Love Vigilantes, which swings as soars
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