Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (Thirty Three and a Third series)

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 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 show more 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.

It's interesting to read one of these buggers about an album you don't really like. Closer is such a better album. I agree with the reviewers on here that the writing is amateurish, and many of the events described a readily available in a lot of different mediums. Oh wait, I thought this was a book about a musical album, not a biography of a singer? It's a shame Martin Hannett never produced Cabaret Voltaire.

A história do Joy Division é, com frequência, encoberta por mitos construídos desde a sua criação. Mas a verdade é surpreendentemente simples: num período de poucos meses, o Joy Division deixou de ser mais um grupo punk ordinário para transformar-se ― com a ajuda decisiva, genial e autoritária do produtor Martin Hannett ― na banda criadora de um dos álbuns de estreia mais perturbadores, atmosféricos e influentes já gravados. De forma cuidadosa e apaixonada, o jornalista Chris Ott propõe separar o que é fato do que é mito, para mostrar como Unknown Pleasures foi concebido e por que ainda ressoa com tanta força nos dias de hoje.