3 keepers
keeper avg .300
While musically influenced by their contemporaries and the not-too-distant past, producer Martin Hannett and Joy Division created soundscapes that were yet unheard. Joy Division begins their legendary debut album with the peppy "Disorder"; while not the strongest melodically it races at a blistering punk tempo, ending in a desperate breakdown. Hannett's unique approach to recording and manipulating percussion tracks gives "She's Lost Control"**** a singular haunting, futuristic vibe for Peter Hook's distinctive high bass line and Ian Curtis's apprehensive vocal to inhabit. Bernard Sumner's angular guitar melodies and a driving tempo create a template to be recreated throughout both new wave and goth.
But it's the majestic second track "Day of the Lords"**** that I think made the likes of Bauhaus, The Cure, and Echo and the Bunnymen all possible; Sumner's metallic chugging is the heaviest since Black Sabbath, all culminating in Curtis's agonized "When will it end?" chorus. The cavernous sonic space (created by Hannett) makes the minimal, nearly tuneless "Candidate" and the loose but evocative closing track "I Remember Nothing" ("we were strangers") especially unsettling.
Elsewhere the influence of seminal proto-punk legends The Stooges is noticeable. The sonic space that minimal guitars subtly enter, explode, and then exit from in "I Remember Nothing" and the single "New Dawn Fades" resemble "Dirt" (1970). While not representative of many other Joy Division songs, the metallic guitar riffs and melody lines in "Interzone" also resemble those on "Fun House," though played far faster. Actually, if Stephen Morris's mechanical, driving rhythms were replaced by Scott Asheton's more soulful groove the same may be said for others.
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