Chris Ott (1)

I love Christ Ott but why his reviews of eBay-auctioned collectibles ("is this obscure Beatles b-side worth 400 dollars?" - that sort of thing) had to be made into a book I'll never know. About 70% of the book is taken up by these auction "reviews", with the Commentaries on Pop proclaimed in the book title making up just 30% of the book (pretty much its last quarter, which is indeed worth reading). I'm not sorry I bought this because he is an opinionated and knowledgable music critic - a show more true rarity - and lord knows that's not a profession that will help you put food on the table these days, but I do wish he had given us a better way to support his writing than this unnecessary and, frankly, bizarre offering. Given how little effort seems to have gone into selecting these pieces, I would just go read his blog instead. show less

I thought this would be an overly pedantic study of the album, but it is really more of an overview of ALL of Joy Division's recordings with little focus on "Unknown pleasures" itself. This wasn't unwelcome to me as someone who always gets confused as to the chronology of Joy Division recordings. Moreover, the book contains a decent (but not overwhelming) amount of biographical anecdotes which, ultimately, makes this a very readable and enjoyable book.

Fascinating that the (early) live version of Joy Division apparently differed so strikingly from the recorded, until Martin Hanett's production ideas were picked up by the band for later albums. Ott argues that Ian Curtis liked the sound, but the rest of the band was far more taken with a brash punk sound, though they loved Curtis' lyrics. So pronounced was the dislike that Peter Hook (bassist) and Bernard Sumner (guitarist) thought Hanett hijacked their songs. And understandably so, based show more on the description of the difference in sounds, and how much the guitar & bass were pushed to the background.

Overall a worthwhile read for me, but I had extended zero effort looking up band history, so maybe it's not the best available. Ott's descriptions frequently veer into blank description: telling, not showing how the band's sound broke new ground, or how the songwriting improved over time. I tend to agree (based on listening to the music), but in these cases Ott's view doesn't stand on its own. On the other hand, he doesn't needlessly dramatize Curtis' suicide, and in fact puts it into context. I didn't know, for example, Curtis battled with epilepsy, and it's striking how autobiographical his lyrics can be. show less

Surely the best book in this very uneven series: enjoyable and enlightening combination of biography, criticism, technical analysis, and appreciation.