So much has been written about Joy Division and Ian Curtis, that I'm not sure I can add anything. I never saw them play, but heard this album via a friend on release, and bought the vinyl, which didn't chart for a year (reaching no 71) until August 1980, three months after Ian Curtis died.
It's very difficult at 40 years distance to convey the feeling of how different this seemed to sound to anything before it. The first clipped Stephen Morris drum beat and Peter Hook high bass riff on Disorder introduce Curtis's deep powerful vocals (his gentle appearance seeming to contradict expectations) broken by a simple but effective Bernard Sumner guitar break over Martin Hannett's industrial noises, all trademarks of Joy Division.
Day Of The Lords is altogether more threatening and dark, while Candidate takes us further down. Insight is ordinary by the band's standards, while the first half ends with the glorious New Dawn Fades, my highlight of the "A side".
The second half kicks off with the haunting cry for help She's Lost Control,then it's another atmospheric classic Shadowplay. Wilderness and Interzone fly past in a couple of minutes each, the album ending with the intense, slow, heartfelt I Remember Nothing, Curtis' lyrics and vocals taking us on a dark journey with Hannett's sound effects of breakage enhancing the feel. As already said, little that went before could predict this album, and it sits above most other debut albums.
5* - a haunting, evocative album of songs, everything on it has its place.
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