Joy Division, a quartet of young men from Manchester, U.K., formed in the ashes of punk rock’s musical and cultural inferno. The fire lit by The Ramones, fanned by The Clash and accelerated by The Sex Pistols blew up in the late 1970s. The conflagration sparked the creation of countless bands around the world. From the cinders arose legendary groups such as The Cure, U2, Siouxie and The Banshees and The Birthday Party. Others, like the equally legendary and influential band The Smiths, also arose out of the fertile Mancunian post-punk scene. But Joy Division is first among equals.
Composed of Peter Hook, bass; Stephen Morris, drums; Bernard Sumner, keyboards and guitar; and Ian Curtis, vocals, Joy Division was formed in 1976 and came to a tragic, premature end a mere four years later. Their slim discography consists of an early EP; two full-length studio albums, “Unknown Pleasures” and “Closer”; and a couple post-dissolution compilations.
Joy Division has been described as the first “goth” band, but that label is constricting. Like all great bands that create a new sound, they both exemplified and transcended it. Where goth often lapses into camp or parody (all those black clothes, graveyards and bats), Joy Division was earnestly their own uncategorizable musical force.
Unique music can be difficult to describe, as it’s hard to draw comparisons. The words cold, bleak and spare come to mind for Joy Division — but so do moving, transcendent and profound. It has been said that listening to sad music can be cathartic, and Joy Division proves the maxim.
An innovation of the group was giving the bass a lead role, often carrying the melody, as in “Transmission.” Morris’ sputtering drumming engendered a sense of unease. Icy washes of synths and jagged guitar lines pierced the musical fabric.
The indisputable focal point of the band was Curtis, whose signature spastic dancing evoked the seizures that racked him as an epileptic. His baritone voice was haunting and mesmerizing, intoning unsettling, impressionistic lyrics: “Mother I tried, please believe me / I’m doing the best that I can / I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through / I’m ashamed of the person I am,” he chants in “Isolation.”
“In the shadowplay, acting out your own death, knowing no more / As the assassins all grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor,” go the dark, enigmatic lyrics of “Shadowplay.”
“Beyond all this good is the terror / The grip of a mercenary hand / When savagery turns all good reason / There’s no turning back, no last stand,” Curtis sings in “Heart and Soul.”
“Love Will Tear Us Apart,” probably Joy Division’s most famous song, is a harrowing ballad of fractured intimacy: “Why is the bedroom so cold? / You’ve turned away on your side / Is my timing that flawed? / Our respect runs so dry / Yet there’s still this appeal / That we’ve kept through our lives.” For anyone who has been in a relationship where love is not enough, this song will assuredly resonate.
“Atmosphere” and “Ceremony” are standout songs, both relying heavily on synthesizers to convey a mood of emptiness and despair, with lyrics including “Walk in silence, don’t walk away, in silence / See the danger, always danger / Always talking, life rebuilding / Don’t walk away” and “Oh, I’ll break them down, no mercy shown / Heaven knows, it’s got to be this time / Watching her, the things she said / The times she cried, too frail to wake this time.”
A sufferer of chronic depression, Curtis took his own life in May 1980 on the eve of Joy Division’s first North American tour. In the aftermath, the three remaining members reconstituted as New Order, adding Gillian Gilbert on keys. While they initially struggled to create their own unique, coherent sound, the release of 1983’s landmark album “Power, Corruption and Lies” put to rest any notion that they were a mere carbon copy of Joy Division. Credited as pioneers of synth-pop, New Order’s music is danceable — at times even effervescent — while retaining the austere tone and instrumentation of their predecessor.
Both bands are seminal and equally deserving of a larger audience. Joy Division, though, is the ideal soundtrack for this time of year as a chill creeps into the air. Listen while it rains and the sun is setting early, in the stillness of an empty room. You will be immersed in a soundscape of desolate beauty and purified by the experience.
