Review albums.
Rank your favorites.

Movement

New Order, 1981

If Joy Division was a downward spiral, the first project from New Order is a arduous trudge back up. Returned are the same monotone and cryptic lyrics, but the hopelessness is replace by a perseverance. There's no shying away from the darkness, but there might be the presence of a light. A reminder that sometimes all one can do, is move. The front of the album is very instrumentation focused. A few long breakdowns during the end that must have had crowds bopping all across the floor. Some really addicing moments on here that I'll be returning back to.

Vvigo7.5Verified listen

Closer

Joy Division, 1980

There's a wicked aura that we (the music community) place onto artists that die young in their careers. We sometimes hold their words to a higher status than artists still living. Almost as if their early death prove some kind of wisdom. Or maybe its because the poetry of the deceased acts as a channel between us and the worlds beyond. The artist I most associate with this is Mac Miller, a man that sang about mental health, addiction, mortality and acceptance, before tragically passing away from a fentanyl overdose. His music predicted the outcome. His lyrics informing his final moments. There are sadly dozens of examples of this. Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, etc, where the music content practically foretells the end. The same can sadly be said for Ian Curtis. Closer, much likes its predecessor, drowns itself in alienation, mental torment and mortality. Its seemingly no surprise that his life ended the way that it did. Obviously it is tragic. But its worth pointing in an honest way what his death did to this album. An already quite uncomfortable experience turns in a powerful and horrifying journey through the mind of someone who was almost at their end. These are honest words and sounds. We know this. I've never been a believer in separating the art from the artist. The artist informs the art. And as much as I hate to say it, the death of Ian Curtis does elevate this album to a legendary status. Knowing the story enhances the effectiveness and creates one of those rare works of art that is truly moving in its totality even if you may only listen to it one time. The opening track, Atrocity Exhibition is like a Rolling Stones perspective shift, but takes away the fun perspective of Lucifer or another one of Jagger's enticing characters. Its all bleak. A total negative viewpoint of the world and a condemnation of the pain that overshadows all in the eyes of the band. The song acts as a indulging entrance into the world of Joy Division and is pretty much a perfect intro track. Closer moves more into the new wave genre than Unknown Pleasures did, as Curtis confronts that anxieties of being a performer. "Is this the gift that I wanted to give?". That questioning is at the heart of Closer. Every track is interrogating the legitimacy of something in the protagonist's direction. And its that questioning that creates the downwards spirals into mental chaos that the album presents. The fear of performing comes across as more of a responsibility to not spread these ideas. Like Ian had found some sort of truth that he couldn't handle. A truth of questioning. An endless decent. No track is this more apparent than on my favorite, Twenty Four Hours. A loss of light and an obsessive re-examination of what once was.

Vvigo9.3Verified listen

Unknown Pleasures

Joy Division, 1979

As with most albums that are credited with birthing a genre, I'm sure that the truth is muddier. Genres don't pop out of nowhere and Joy Division certainly didn't come up with all of these sounds, rhythms and motifs out of nowhere. That being said, it is quite interesting how much basically every element of the genre is present in this one album (the haunting, bass vocals, jagged and atmospheric guitars). The rhythms are easy enough to follow, its the surrounding soundscape where the experimentation lies. The album carries a serious level of introspective nihilism. There's a feeling that every experience in this world has already happened and everything from now on is a hollow carbon copy. That might seem terrifying, but Ian Curtis confronts this void head one, ending the track Insight with a repeated "I'm not afraid anymore". The band examines self evolution, questioning if change is really change or just a coping mechanism for our past shame. A selfish metamorphosis to self soothe. Often failed. "Me, seeing me this time. Hoping for something else." My favorite track is "She's Lost Control". A horrifying time I got to say. The bands depicts a woman going through what appears to be a psychotic break and the sane piece of her sitting in the realization. I love the jagged guitar sitting in the background, like there is a haunting presence sneaking up. Really fun licks here too for such a scary song. Excited to get to rest of the albums in this set and move onto New Order.

Vvigo8.3Verified listen