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Rating:
It is National Socialism that haunts what is presented as the first demo recording (on vinyl) by the Macclesfield band. Year of recording 1978. The cover alone, depicting a teenager explicitly dressed in Hitler Youth attire, intent on striking the membrane of his own unawareness, expresses what the record tries to impose in a totalizing manner.
A CD that immediately appears faded, in the shades that flow between a bass full of obsession, and a guitar practically stripped of its own soul.
Four tracks:
-WARSAW: Legend has it that this name was initially chosen by Curtis as the band's name, in honor of David Bowie, a detail that becomes irrelevant when listening to and studying what, as far as I am concerned, is one of the most obscure lyrics I have ever had to interpret. "350-125 GO!!" With this phrase, which introduces the track, one is left stunned, almost amazed by the coldness of Curtis's voice. An order, or rather, the Order. That is what you just perceived. This numerical sequence, ingeniously inserted, consisted of the serial number assigned to Rudolph Hess in the prison where he served the life sentence imposed on him by the Nuremberg trials. Hess was Hitler's most fervent follower, chosen, not by chance, for his explicit tendencies and obsessions with mysticism that so fascinated the unfortunate Ian. The sound and lyrics proceed rigidly, marching in time, stiffened by an overdrive so rough it surpasses the meaning of crunch to definitively diminish it.
-"NO LOVE LOST" aspires to be a true link between what is the soul of Joy Division and their occult way of going beyond the "macabre." The title of this track was chosen and uprooted from the novel "House of Dolls" by Karol Cetinsky, a novel that also influenced Curtis for the definitive name of his band. The straightforwardness of Ian's words is fabulous: they belong to the cold, darkness, and desolation of distant 1945.
-"LEADERS OF MEN" addresses in the third person the figure of the leader, whose duty is to lift a suicidal bourgeoisie from an abyss of poverty and frustration through the aspiring "Ideal for Living." Here Curtis's voice subverts into a distinctly off-key melody, almost as if engaged in a Wagnerian parody.
-"FAILURES" finally appears in all its essence as the negative response that the recording aims to stimulate. Broken at times, almost deliberately incomplete, it embeds in your limbs the certainty that there is no going back once the journey has begun: no future. Personally, I believe this is one of the many pearls that Joy Division has left behind. Rich in allure like propaganda, seductive and dispersive as a rally. Cold as the barrel of a gun to the neck.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Warsaw (02:25)
3,5,0,1,2,5, Go!
I was there in the back stage
when first light came around.
I grew up like a changeling
to win the first time around.
I can see all the weakness
i can pick all the faults
well i concede all the faith tests
just to stick in your throats
3 1 g, 3 1 g, 3 1 g
i hung around in your soundtrack
to mirror all that you've done
to find the right side of reason
to kill the three lies for one
i can see all the cold facts
i can see through your eyes
all this talk made no contact
no matter how hard we tried
3 1 g, 3 1 g, 3 1 g
i can still hear the footsteps
i can only see walls
i slid into your man-traps
with no hearing at all
i just see contradiction
had to give up the fight
just to live in the past tense
to make believe you were right
3 1 g, 3 1 g, 3 1 g
3,5,0,1,2,5
03 Leaders of Men (02:35)
Born from some mother's womb,
Just like any other room.
Made a promise for a new life,
Made a victim out of your life
When your time's on the door,
And it drips to the floor,
And you feel you can touch,
All the noise is too much,
And the seeds that are sown,
Are no longer your own.
Just a minor operation,
To force a final ultimatum
Thousand words are spoken loud,
Reach the dumb to fool the crowd.
When you walk down the street,
And the sound's not so sweet,
And you wish you could hide,
Maybe go for a ride,
To some peep show arcade,
Where the future's not made
A nightmare situation,
Infiltrate imagination,
Smacks of past Holy wars,
By the wall with broken laws.
The leaders of men,
Born out of your frustration,
The leaders of men
Just a strange infatuation.
The leaders of men,
Made a promise for a new life
No saviour for our sakes,
To twist the internees of hate,
Self-induced manipulation,
To crush all thoughts of mass salvation
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By SUPERVAI1986
'An Ideal For Living' is born, a testimonial that presents itself as a sort of hope for future generations.
This song represents the clear proof of Joy Division’s art, the combination between the most delicate soul of the English quartet and their scenic approach through Curtis’s digressions and movements.
