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

This book was sent as a gift and the recipient loved it! It is a great tribute to a wonderful album by an historic, influential band.

This is what I hoped all 33 1/3 books read like. It actually takes you through the band's recording processes leading up to and including the album. Some entries in the series are much more about the author than the subject matter. Chris Ott does a fantastic job of providing interesting information for obsessive types.

Great read about band and album

Clearly written mini-history presented with sensitivity and attention to detail. A great introduction to the whole Joy Division experience. The book itself is sturdy and well put together. A fine addition to your collection.

I'm starting to get the hang of the books in this series: there is no formula. I like that. And that said, I like this entry, but not as much as I wish I did. I confess that of their two albums proper, I prefer Closer (Reis) (Exp) , which is less studio-gimmicky and, well, more depressing in its tone and atmosphere (and Atmosphere), but Unknown Pleasures is a pretty impressive album in its own right. Ott does a nice job of giving us a sense of how special this album and this band were, with a special focus on the way that they transformed themselves, in what was really a pretty short period of time, from what (based upon the recordings extant) was a pretty dire punk band, frankly, into a one of the most influential and singular bands of the post-punk era. And rightly so. Joy Division were a monolith, really. I admit, too, that I never much cared for New Order. Ott also does a pretty nice job of giving a thumbnail view of JD in the studio and he is meticulous in presenting their recorded output, including session dates, various releases, who / what / when / and where. He also does a nice job of explaining what Martin Hannett brought to the party in the studio (and how he adjusted after Unknown Pleasures on the singles, and Closer, that followed). Where he is weaker, I think, is in his presentation of the band as Ian Curtis and, um, some other guys. No one else in the book emerges as more than a two-dimensional presence. Heck, other than Peter Hook, who gets a few quotes off, no one else gets even two dimensions. While certainly Curtis' vocals, lyrics and stage presence were obviously major determining factors of Joy Division, and the major factor in the IMAGE of Joy Division, the other guys would seem to have had a little something to do with the band and its music. And his treatment of Curtis is somewhat problematic. His portrait of his inner turmoil, his pompousness, his struggles to both deal with and accept his epilepsy (not to mention his marriage) are noble, he too often, and easily, falls into the "tortured genius" mode while insisting that Curtis was NOT a tortured genius. Thought he was, you know, tortured, um, and a genius. This is not meant to in any way diminish Curtis' life, inner struggles, or death, it ultimately feels pat to me - there's no real answer, but here is the answer. All in all, the book is a mixed bag, but worthy of the series and a useful read. Ultimately, it sends me back to a wonderful record I hadn't listened to in a while, makes me reflect on it and appreciate it all over again. That's useful.

Tons of insights regarding this influential album and band.

A great mix of the essential and the trivial. A perfect description of the sessions and why the album sounds the way it does.

quite informative nonetheless. Chris Ott does a good job after setting the stage, a little clunky in the beginning, but afterwards, he settles in and gives all the info any fan would either enjoy ... or already know. Now, if somebody would do Closer ... Good stuff! JCS

Is it possible to be a Joy Division fan without succumbing to Ian Curtis mythology? Apparently not, and this book is no exception. Though author tried to avoid it for the better part he only managed to fall into dry listing of chronology in which even events like Ian running around in the rehearsal room with a bucket on his head make no impression nor inspire emotion. Barely few facts are new in this book - it mostly caters to the hardcore devotees comparing every possible rendition of the songs fueling further that Curtis myth. Image keeps springing in my mind of a poster that covered better part of the wall in my best friend's room - Ian sitting on an amplifier with head bowed down and a hand over his eyes. For some reason or another (being more or less the same age as Ian was then) my friend took to worshipping Joy and all that weight of the world on shoulders posture and demeanor. Unfortunately it also had an air of being better than the rest, too (apparently because of that same huge weight). Another image that follows it along the same lines is of a guy from my high school who tried to be a film director while being an overtly huge fan of Joy and was walking around all misunderstood evoking weltschmertz. Unfortunately, even Ott slides towards it in the end, mentioning Goethe and young Werther. The very last sentence in the book is overflowing with pathos: However casually, critically or romantically we approach Joy Division's music, we can only mourn the overwhelming, frustrated agony that Ian Curtis could not bear. If only someone could approach that music without mourning...

As a start point, let me just say that I think that Siriam's review is pretty much on the money and he has expressed much of what I might have written in this review. This is not so much a book about Unknown Pleasures, more a book about Joy Division that manages to avoid anything much to do with Closer. In this respect, it doesn't do precisely what it says on the cover, but having started on the tack it has, you sort of wish that it had kept going and dealt with Closer too. This is the first book I have read in the series, so I am not sure what to expect. I think what I might have expected was a real in depth analysis of the album in question. In this analysis, I would want to know more about the lyrics and would probably expect to see them reproduced. It wouldn't be much to ask. There is a general discussion of some of Curtis' lines, but nothing that really approaches textual analysis. As a guitar player, I would also really have liked to have known what amps and equipment were used and if possible, how these choices were decided on. Reading around this suggests that Sumner used Vox guitars, which are an unusual choice. Why? How did they contribute to the Joy Division sound, if indeed they did? The writing is OK but at times typical rock journalist, which has a tendency to be slightly bombastic ,as if it has real literary pretensions. It isn't easy to write about music, though, to get the reader to experience what the author as listener has experienced. There was a passing comment on Proust which just betrayed deep ignorance of his work, but I can't be bothered to leaf through the book to tell you what it was. In summary, a good and interesting book on Joy Division for the fan, though if you have read around the subject, I am not sure that this work is going to enlighten you over much. It won't tell you a huge amount more about the album in question than perhaps you already know.

This little book provides a good overview of the all-too-brief life and times of Ian Curtis and Joy Division. Essential reading if you want to know the background of this ground-breaking debut album.