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Rating:
There are few albums I have heard that, like this one, have the intensity and the effect of the despairing abandonment with which one takes the last alcoholic sip before collapsing prey to the ghosts of the mind.
One becomes attached to it immediately, almost with the naive and instinctive disposition of an adolescent, or of someone who suffers and endures, without almost knowing why, in search of an identity, a name for their own inner discomfort.
It may be because of that debut as desperate as it is captivating from the first track, the splendid "Disorder", which somehow recalls the dark and incomprehensible chasms/needs of adolescence ("I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand..."), where you feel that never quenched teenage desire to be taken by the hand and to feel guided and wanted by someone as you are and Ian Curtis's existential restlessness, all his personal drama.
If you remember the Eighties from having lived them as a teenager ("But I remember, when we were young..."), listening to the sounds of "Unknown Pleasures" (1979) brings back images of alternative parties in some basement, smudged lipsticks, black kohl, and purple nail polish, dark atmospheres, you getting dizzy alone in a corner (and in the background, perhaps, "She Lost Control" was playing), the memory of drunken dawns on the street amidst others' boisterous ruckus and you thinking you had never felt so alone and misunderstood ("We'll share a drink and step outside / An angry voice and one who cried...").
Ian Curtis almost doesn't sing, he "is", he screams, he declares himself and his clear torment in a desperate and raw way, yet at the same time so intensely, damnably human. Now peremptory and solemn, now disheartened and lacerating, he becomes a clear-eyed prophet of the impossibility of realizing one's most intimate hopes and the nullifying of every expectation in an unresolved knot of disillusionment and defeat.
There is no need to highlight one song over another. This album is an absolute existential journey, where every step is necessary, in a continuum between despair and anger, between pain and bitterness.
The music, cutting and sharp, accompanies almost as a spectator this journey, unfolding in a dark, disturbing play of violent lights and shadows. It mercilessly strips the words and doesn't wrap them, evokes silence without providing answers to primary questions, which resonate darkly like the echo of distress signals sent into the void.
Some passages from this album's songs stay with you, marking you like furrows (in this sense, the splendid, now historic, cover by Peter Saville becomes an illustrated filigree of the emotions gifted by the album): from the pressing "Where will it end?" of "Day of the Lords" to the dark "We were strangers / we were strangers / away too long" of "I Remember Nothing", up to the obsessive "I tried to get to you" of "Candidate", often repeated like an alienating and corrosive drip.
A masterpiece album, the first effort of a band that became legend, and that pervades inside and digs like few others, vibrating to the last with rare intensity and energy.
Anyone who knows how to look inside themselves and has at least once managed to glimpse the shadows of the pain of living cannot disregard it and belong to it.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Disorder (03:32)
I've been waiting for a guide to come
and take me by the hand
Could these sensations make me feel
the pleasures of a normal man
New sensations bear the innocence -
leave them for another day
I've got the spirit, lose the feeling
take the shock away
It's getting faster, moving faster now,
it's getting out of hand
On the tenth floor, down the backstairs
into no-man's land
Lights are flashing,
cars are crashing,
getting frequent now
I've got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it
out somehow
What means to you,
what means to me -
and we will meet again
I'm watching you, I watch it all
I take no pity from friends
Who is right and who can tell,
and who gives a damn right now
Until the spirit, new sensation
takes hold - then you know
Until the spirit, new sensation
takes hold - then you know
Until the spirit, new sensation
takes hold - then you know
I've got the spirit, but lose the feeling
I've got the spirit, but lose the feeling
I've got the spirit, but lose the feeling
Feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling
03 Candidate (03:05)
Forced by the pressure,
The territories marked,
No longer the pleasure,
Oh, I've since lost the heart.
Corrupted from memory,
No longer the power,
It's creeping up slowly,
That last fatal hour.
Oh, I don't know what made me,
or what gave me the right,
To mess with your values,
And change wrong to right.
Please keep your distance,
The trail leads to here,
There's blood on your fingers,
Brought on by fear.
I campaigned for nothing,
I worked hard for this,
I tried to get to you,
You treat me like this.
It's just second nature,
It's what we've been shown,
We're living by your rules,
That's all that we know.
I tried to get to you,
I tried to get to you,
I tried to get to you.
I tried to get to you.
04 Insight (04:29)
Guess the dream always end
They don't rise up just descend
But I don't care anymore
I've lost the will to want more
I'm not afraid, not at all
I watch them all as they fall
But I remember, when we were young
Those with habits of waste
The sense of style and the taste
Of making sure you were right
Hey, don't you know you were right
I'm not afraid anymore
I keep my eyes on the door
But I remember...
Tears and sadness for you
Awe of evil for you
Reflects a moment in time
A special moment in time
Yeah, we wasted our time
We didn't really have time
But we remember - when we were young
And all God's angels beware
And all you judges beware
Sons of chance take good care
For all the people out there
I'm not afraid anymore
I'm not afraid anymore
I'm not afraid anymore
I'm not afraid anymore
05 New Dawn Fades (04:47)
Change of speed, a change of style
A change of scene, with no regrets
A chance to watch
admire the distance
Still occupied - though you forget
Different colours, different shades
Over each mistakes were made
I took the blame
Directionless, so plain to see
A loaded gun won't set you free
So you say
We'll share a drink and step outside
An angry voice and one who cried
We'll give you everything and more
The strain's too much,
can't take much more
Oh I've walked on water,
run through fire
Can't seem to feel it anymore
It was me - waiting for me
Hoping for something more
Me - see me in this time -
Hoping for something else
06 She's Lost Control (03:57)
Confusion in her eyes that says it all -
She's lost control
And she's clinging to the nearest passer-by
She's lost control
And she gave away the secrets of her past
And said "I've lost control again."
And a voice that told her when and where to act,
She said I've lost control again.
And she turned to me
and took me by the hand
and said "I've lost control again"
and how I'll never know just why
or understand
She said "I've lost control again"
And she screamed out, kicking on her side
And seized up on the floor -
I thought she'd died
She said "I've lost control again"
She's lost control again -
she's lost control
Well I had to phone her friend
to state her case and say
she's lost control again
And she showed up all the errors
and mistakes
and said "I've lost control again"
But she expressed herself in many
different ways
until she'd control again
And walked upon the edge of no escape
and laughed "I've lost control again"
She's lost control again,
she's lost control
she's lost control
07 Shadowplay (03:55)
To the centre of the city where all roads meet
waiting for you
To the depths of the ocean
where all hopes sank searching for you
moving through the silence without motion
waiting for you
In a room with no window in the corner,
I found truth
In the shadowplay, acting out your
own death, knowing no more
As the assassins all grouped
in four lines,
Dancing on the floor,
And with cold steel, odour on their bodies,
made a move to connect
I could only stare in disbelief
as the crowds all left
I did everything, everything I wanted to
I let them use you -
for their own ends
To the centre of the city at night
waiting for you
waiting for you
08 Wilderness (02:38)
I traveled far and wide through many
different times
What did you see there?
I saw all knowledge destroyed
I traveled far and wide to prisons
of the cross
What did you see there?
The power and glory of sin
What did you see there?
The blood of Christ on their skins
I traveled far and wide through many
different times
I traveled far and wide where
unknown martyrs died
I saw the one-sided trials
What did you see there?
I saw the tears as they cried
They had tears in their eyes!
Tears in their eyes!
Tears in their eyes!
Tears in their eyes!
09 Interzone (02:16)
I walked through city limits
Someone took me by the hand in the blue
Attracted by some force within it
If I could close my eyes,
I could get used to it
Around the corner where a puppet lay
Saw the place where she had a room to stay
A wire fence
where children play
Saw them dance where the body lay
And I was looking for a friend of mine
The car screeched in the sand
and dust
Feel encouraged -
just a car on it's side
Metallic blue turned red with rust
Pulled it close by the buildin's side
In a room for forgotten youth
I could think
or let my senses slide
Turned on to a night with you
Find the place where my friends, won't go
And I was looking for a friend of mine
and I had no time to lose
Yeah looking for some friends of mine
Down the dark street,
the houses looked the same
Stopped and turned around,
held me to a game
I walked round and round,
you nailed me to a tree
Trying to find a way,
trying to find a way, to get out
For twelve windows stand in a row
Behind a wall
where a room to go
The light shined like a neon show
See the deep mellow warmth
of the glow
No place to stop,
no place to go
No time to lose,
have to keep on going
I guess they died some time ago
I guess they died some time ago
And I was looking for a friend of mine
And I have no time to lose
Yeah, I was looking for a friend of mine
10 I Remember Nothing (05:52)
We were strangers, we were strangers,
Away too long,
away too long
We were violent strangers,
away too long,
Get weak all the time,
we just passed the time
Me in my own world, yeah you there beside
The gaps only moment,
we stared from each side
We were strangers, away too long
Violent, more violent his hand
cracks the chair
Moves on reaction, then slumps,
in despair
Trapped in a cage and surrendered
too soon
Me in my own world
Away too long
We were strangers, We were strangers
Away too long, away too long
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Other reviews
By Sgt Pepper
"Unknown Pleasures talks about this, and it introduces us to what can be considered the true testament of Ian Curtis."
"You remain surrounded by darkness, by the ghosts that cloud Curtis' depressed mind. Ghosts that could not have been described more candidly."
By darkfall
I lost myself in a whirlwind of dark thoughts, playing a Shadowplay...
I can hear the Disorder... I can hear the Lords; I’m waiting for the Day Of The Lords...
By iusedme
Curtis' voice is Curtis' voice. Period. No one had his tone. Period.
'Unknown Pleasures changes the place where it is played, and in many cases, it has also changed the people who have listened to it.'
By lovetojour
Joy Division answered us by imploding a star in a room. Ours.
The scream is cautionary, the hope is INSIDE.
By Daedal
"Unknown Pleasures is the transformation of the four from a rough and dirty group to a magnificent conjurer of atmospheres."
"A seminal manifesto of the gothic season that was to come, unifying spectral and black music with the disturbing and magnificent poetry of that sad genius, Ian Curtis."
