Let's Rank All 45 Joy Division Songs!
I was obsessed with New Order before I discovered Joy Division which really happened when the Joy Division collection Substance followed New Order’s Substance collection during the summer before my freshman year of college in 1988. Once I put that together I dove in deep.
I read all the books on the band I could get my hands on, I had a massive Joy Division poster in my dorm room, I bought an obscure album called Satan, Bugs Bunny and Me by a band called The Cassandra Complex at the legendary Schoolkids’ Records in Ann Arbor because the person working there told me it sounded like Joy Division (it did a little and that album has a few great songs on it including (In Search Of) Penny Century but I digress…). I searched out and found bootleg cassettes of the unreleased Warsaw recordings and a few really crappy live recordings that I played to death.
The image on the poster in my dorm room (but it had “JOY DIVISION” in big letters at the top…).
My pursuit of Ian Curtis has never really ended - I think many of us who connected to this band have struggled to understand him and wished we could have helped him. He took his own life 8 years before I even knew who he was and he’s still had a big impact on plenty of people my age and younger. I used to love MySpace (I’ve always been a social media junkie) and I once did a search for Annik Honore - the mysterious Belgian “other girl” in Ian’s life and found a result for an “Annik H,” sent her a message asking if it was her and it was. We chatted a bit and she was delightful. I didn’t pry and she was happy to connect with a fan of Ian’s.
Joy Division’s existence as a band was brief, but their impact was massive. Their music isn’t “uplifting” exactly - it’s a pretty heavy trip into darkness with Ian’s lyrics full of despair and the music to match, and yet there is something undeniably incredible about it. They’ve been covered by everyone from Smashing Pumpkins, to Nine Inch Nails, to Simple Minds, to Moby, to The Killers, to the Goth kings themselves - The Cure. There aren’t enough albums (only 2 full studio LPs) to do an “album ranking” and there aren’t really any “bad” Joy Division songs, but I figured “ranking” all of them would be a great way to discuss their body of work.
First some criteria… If you search it you may see the number put at 53 - that’s Wikipedia’s number for how many Joy Division songs there are. For me there are 45 that deserve mention but I’m aware that’s debatable. The live cover of the Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray from the Still release doesn’t count for me, but Ceremony also from Still, does. In A Lonely Place included on the Heart and Soul box set does not. Do these decisions seem inconsistent? I could see that, but In A Lonely Place only exists in demo version and isn’t really fair to rank as a Joy Division song, while Ceremony only exists in a live version yes (in a recording started part way into the song), but it was meant for the public and just feels definitive, and a live cover does not a JD song make. I also do not feel that any of the scrapped Warsaw RCA sessions should count - they don’t sound good other than from a historical perspective and there is a reason they were shelved. She’s Lost Control was recorded and released twice but only counts once. So 45 it is. Let’s get to it.
Let’s Rank All 45 Joy Division Songs!
45. As You Said - B-Side (1980) Kind of an instrumental experimental version of Incubation. Interesting but unneccessary.
44. Walked In Line - Still (1979) The song that called out the Third Reich by saying Nazis wore the shame of all their crimes as they walked in line. Kind of a lame throwaway otherwise in my opinion.
43. Something Must Break - Still (1979) Not very good - a handful of songs from the Unknown Pleasures sessions that were not good enough for the album.
42. The Kill - Still (1979) Kind of an interesting riff I guess - not to be confused with the very early Warsaw song by the same name from sessions I didn’t include in this list.
41. Living In The Ice Age - Still (1979) Not a big fan - trying too hard here. Overly fast and kinda silly.
40. The Only Mistake - Still (1979) Not horrible. But still kind of…..a mistake.
39. At A Later Date - Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus (1978) A curiosity - the first live recording of the band featured on a compilation and notable for Bernard Sumner provocatively shouting “You all forgot Rudolph Hess!” before the song - not quite sure what his point was… Mildly interesting for historical purposes I guess.
38. Novelty - B-Side (1979) This will probably be the subject of disagreement for many to have Novelty this low, but I just never loved this song… sorry.
37. Failures - An Ideal For Living (1978) The next three are from the Warsaw EP before they changed their name to Joy Division but I feel like they were close enough that they still count. The band still claimed them as part of the later Substance release so I included them here. A bit primitive but still good and certainly really interesting from a historical perspective for this band.
36. Leaders Of Men - An Ideal For Living (1978) “Born from some mother’s womb, just like any other room…” See above.
35. Warsaw - An Ideal For Living (1978) The punk song - the band figuring out what they were going to be. I don’t know if it’s a great punk song, but it’s a great Joy Division punk song - if that makes sense.
34. Interzone - Unknown Pleasures (1979) Pretty cool idea that doesn’t totally work with the double lead vocal as a sort of call and response double tracked (?) by Ian. Interesting with a cool hook between verses.
33. From Safety To Where…? - Earcom 2 Compilation (1979) “Should we move on or stay safely away…?” On the edge of the impending darkness to come, and when you know the end of the story this seems like a marker of sorts. Some very cool changes in this one and some great bass work from Hooky.
32. Candidate - Unknown Pleasures (1979) I’ve always found Candidate and Day Of The Lords to be of a piece - a settling in for some slow burn doom and gloom after the opening blast of Disorder on the Unknown Pleasures LP before things pick back up. They are both fantastic in their own way and also fine examples of the problem of ranking Joy Division songs hehe… some songs suffer from the mere fact that not everything can be in the upper half.
31. Day Of The Lords - Unknown Pleasures (1979) If this isn’t a goth masterpiece I don’t know what is. Now keep in mind that Joy Division does NOT belong neatly in the Goth category - that’s not what I’m implying. It’s just that this one feels so dark and doomy. A good example of how you have to go to that place to listen to Joy Division sometimes. “Where will it end…???”
30. Auto-suggestion - Earcom 2 Compilation (1979) I love the loose improvisational feel of this song. Lots of experimentation going on here from everyone as it builds and builds into Ian’s cynical mantra of “Say you TRIED…..”
29. The Sound Of Music - Still (1980) Cool staccato riffage and a bit primitive which is part of the appeal of this one. “HIGHERRRRRR!!!”
28. Glass - A Factory Sample / Still (1978) Glass & Digital from the A Factory Sample release are the tracks where Joy Division starts to sound like Joy Division. Ian Curtis starts to find that rich quality of his dark baritone and the band really jams here - a still-early blueprint for what was to come over the next year and a half.
27. I Remember Nothing - Unknown Pleasures (1979) Want to have some fun? Put this track on loud in the car with someone who hasn’t heard it before and pretend to be scared shitless when that big glass breaks at the :48 mark. You’ll scare the CRAP out of your passenger. Meanwhile this one closes out the Unknown Pleasures album with a bleak slow burner like Closer does, and while there isn’t a whole lot to this song per se (it’s more of a mood than it is a song with a real structure) which is why I can’t rank it higher, for some reason I really love it.
26. Wilderness - Unknown Pleasures (1979) I love the elastic bass line here and it’s this part of the list that is tough because I’d love to have this song higher, but ahead of what?
25. Shadowplay - Unknown Pleasures (1979) Great cover by The Killers to end the Control film and a great riff in this one.
24. Komakino - Single (1980) Hooky is the star of this one with some awesome and a bit heavy bass work. One of the great rhythms they came up with which was a real weapon for this group if you think about it. Hooky and Stephen Morris as a rhythm section in Joy Division especially are criminally underrated. Sounds like I have to make another list….
23. Decades - Closer (1980) The second and final Joy Division LP finishes with two slower and still pretty bleak tracks which are both really good. This is the slightly lesser of the two for my money and the closer on Closer but it’s still really good with the opening line “Here are the young men…” borrowed for the title of the video release with all the highest quality concert footage and the Love Will Tear Us Apart video tacked on to the end. Searching for lost innocence here? Of the band? Not sure…
22. A Means To An End - Closer (1980) Depression and blame… “I put my trust in you!!!” Perhaps one of the lesser jams on Closer when compared to some of the absolute classics there but still fantastic.
21. Atrocity Exhibition - Closer (1980) That rolling repetitive tribal beat… “This is the way - step inside.” Ian leading us into darkness to open the Closer LP.
20. These Days - B-Side (1980) Almost sounds like bringing back the riff from No Love Lost but with an update on the back end of the “chorus” of “Will you stay? For these days….” But with that repetitive boomerang of a riff that goes throughout the track. A good (dare I say) catchy tune.
19. The Eternal - Closer (1980) The penultimate track on Closer and an extremely dreary one at that. A slow burn that feels like a funeral procession. I love it.
18. Incubation - Unknown Pleasures (1979) The other (and really the main) Joy Division instrumental that just kicks ass and fits so well on this album. A driving and dense track that seems to represent the industrial and grey Manchester that I’ve read so much about during that era in all things that are written about Joy Division.
17. Digital - A Factory Sample / Still (1978) Such a novelty of a song that just works with that repetition of the bass line, the guitar…line, the vocal of “Feel it closing iiiiiiiiiiiin DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUT DAY IN DAY OUUUUUTT!!!!” Such a frantic guilty pleasure!
16. No Love Lost - An Ideal For Living (1978) This is the earliest Joy Division song that has a real impact for me even as it makes me a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps the song from the Warsaw EP that indicated that something truly interesting was going on… These guys had a bit of a fascination with fascism and Nazis - not because they were “fans” - much like Slayer it seems it was just an exploration of that evil. As a Jew I’ve always had a slightly uncomfortable tolerance of songs like No Love Lost or similarly Angel Of Death about Joseph Mengele by Slayer, balanced by songs like Walked In Line and Behind the Crooked Cross (also by Slayer referring to the swastika as a “crooked cross” - evil). Almost like a Tarantino film like Inglorious Basterds which treats Third Reich propaganda with satire. I have to be smart enough to get that they weren’t adopting the ideology by exploring it and even exposing it in a way that might seem to straddle the fence of good taste at times. It’s complicated. As for this song I love how Anton Corbijn used it in the film Control following Sam Riley as Ian Curtis walking through Macclesfield (?) - great visual!
15. Colony - Closer (1980) I swear I hear this song in the middle of Nirvana’s Scoff especially between 2:40 - 3:00. There’s no doubt they had to be influenced by Joy Division. *Okay - so just this second after I typed that I did a search for “Nirvana Joy Division influence” and came across this quote by Kurt Cobain saying he knew Joy Division was THE band to listen to and yet he was waiting to do it - perhaps because of the place it might take him? Interesting stuff - I had never heard that quote.
14. New Dawn Fades - Unknown Pleasures (1979) One of a handful of Joy Division songs that can be almost difficult to enjoy even though I have it rated pretty high. It’s an emotionally weighty dirge that you have to be willing to endure - to go to that place. It’s worth it but hearing Ian Curtis scream “…the strain’s too much - can’t take much MOOORRRREEEEE” might not be something you would enjoy on repeat. But it’s an achievement nonetheless.
13. Disorder - Unknown Pleasures (1979) A fantastic and (almost) uplifting opener to the Unknown Pleasures masterpiece. Ian Curtis has the spirit….but still loses the feeling.
12. 24 Hours - Closer (1980) An intensely dark song that seems to represent the struggle within. Back and forth between moments of contemplation and intense despair musically and vocally. A real epic feel even though it only clocks in at 4:26, this is one where I feel the band really shows a rapid acceleration of complexity in their songwriting and performance. There’s a lot going on here and it all works seemlessly.
11. Exercise One - Still (1979) Another marker of sorts for me with Ian asking “When you're looking at life in a strange new room, maybe drowning soon - is this the start of it all?” Entering this phase of life with a sense that it might not be sustainable… Of all the songs recorded in and around the time of the Unknown Pleasures sessions that was seemingly just left off the album this is my favorite one. Morris and Hook march along with a heavy hypnotic rhythm that I’ve always loved on this one. Both the Still version and the one they recorded for John Peel’s show on 1/31/79 are fantastic.
10. Dead Souls - B-Side (1980) That long intro - hard for me to hear it without picturing Ian dancing to it and working himself into his frenzied whirling about as the intensity builds before the vocals begin (from watching it on the VHS copy of the video compilation Here Are The Young Men). One heck of a B-side that’s for sure and of the 17 times they played it live 12 of those times it was the opener (3 times it was the closer). A great way to open a Joy Division show with that long intro. It’s available on the Substance compilation.
9. Heart And Soul - Closer (1980) As is often the case Stephen Morris is the star here with that frantic rhythm (probably driven by visionary maniac producer Martin Hannett), but the musical atmosphere that floats around it and above it along with Ian Curtis’s creepy vocal delivery makes this a masterpiece. “Existence well what does it matter? I exist on the best terms I can….”
8. Isolation - Closer (1980) A forceful Stephen Morris beat, joined by a killer Peter Hook bass line and then those dense and thrilling synthesizers…. wow. Ian Curtis’s vocals on Isolation almost have a sing-songy nursery rhyme quality to them and yet like most of the lyrics on Closer the content belies the danceable uplifting sound of this one. “I’m ashamed of the things I’ve been put through….I’m ashamed of the person I am…” Again, these lyrics can only come off as heartbreaking from someone who took their own life. Ian Curtis’s story isn’t that cut and dried by all accounts from those who knew him - he wasn’t an outwardly unhappy person in general and it’s not like he wrote lyrics about depression, confusion, regret and despair to telegraph the fact that he had been planning to take his own life for a long time - at least not that anyone was really aware of. And yet knowing how his life ended it’s hard not to be tempted to read into lyrics like his in that way. It’s such a hard thing to reconcile, and I’m not meaning to put a fine point on it here as if I have the answers by any stretch. I just know that I connect with the art he left behind and have since the first moment I heard it.
7. Passover - Closer (1980) Ooooh - pure darkness here. Resignation: “This is the crisis I knew had to come, destroying the balance I’ve kept….” I’ve always found the guitar riff a bit more pronounced during the verses on live recordings which had even a darker effect. No chorus of any sort, just a statement of despair with a hypnotic beat, and it’s so good.
6. Insight - Unknown Pleasures (1979) I think we all bring our own interpretations to Joy Division songs and Ian Curtis’s lyrics in particular. For me this one marks a bit of a shift as Ian goes deep to try to examine what he’s starting to realize about himself (and this is assuming he was actually writing about his thoughts). What he discovers with this new Insight is that he doesn’t care, has lost his will and isn’t afraid and then we’re sent into……somewhere in the dark recesses with a flurry of electronic sounds accompanied by Hooky’s frantic bass that makes for an exhilarating yet anxious and voyeuristic effect (are we hearing and experiencing his conflict somehow?)… Otherwise musically it’s got a hypnotic Hooky lead bass line that points to a developing sound that would define much of New Order’s signature. This song is underrated to me and firmly belongs this high on the list.
5. Ceremony - Still (1980) One of my favorite songs of all time….originally for me by New Order. When the band decided to continue on after Ian Curtis died but to start over by changing their name and adding Gillian Gilbert on keys, they made the decision to leave Joy Division behind with just a couple of exceptions in the demo In A Lonely Place and Ceremony. These were the only two Joy Division songs they would either record in the studio and release officially or play live with any regularity as New Order. When I discovered that there was an officially released version of Joy Division performing this live from the posthumous Still release I was blown away by it and it’s wild that someone forgot to hit the record button so it starts in the middle. Not to mention that the first time we hear Ian is barely audible as his mic clearly isn’t going through the soundboard…. when they finally get it right salvaging at lease some of Ian’s vocals it’s jarring in its power and poignancy - it’s the band’s last live concert and it’s an uplifting and hopeful song. It signals a beginning of sorts and marks a tragic ending at the same time and I still find it emotional to listen to.
4. She’s Lost Control - Unknown Pleasures (1979) A song tied to Ian’s miserable issues with epilepsy through the lens of a seizure he witnessed at his job that he describes here. An iconic Hooky bass line that provides clues to the central role his instrument would have in further creating a defining piece of the New Order sound with an infectious Stephen Morris beat that pushes the song along as the drama builds with Sumner’s ascending guitar riffage over the top... really powerful stuff. And there are two completely different versions of this song - the 12 inch version that I discovered when I really started listening to Joy Division in 1988 with the release of the collection Substance. That was genius really - Joy Division’s Substance tied the legacy to New Order in the similarity of New Order’s Substance from the previous year. Both served as a Greatest Hits of sorts with many songs that did not appear on any albums but were still released as singles. New Order’s Substance so dominated my life that it led me to get Joy Division’s, and that’s where my journey began. I discovered the original version of She’s Lost Control (recorded almost a full year earlier) from Unknown Pleasures later. They’re both incredible.
3. Transmission - Single (1979) And we can DAAAAAAAAAAAAANCE!!!!!!!! Can we, would we - dance like Ian Curtis? I think it would be awesome to have an Ian Curtis dance party - where you can only dance like him. Is it possible that Rush were Joy Division fans and Spirit of Radio was the cynical response as a take on the music business to Joy Division’s celebration (?) of how the transmission of radio waves can get us dancing? Okay that was a joke, but I am a huge fan of both songs, released one year apart about radio and I’m not sure Transmission is a celebration... I’m actually not quite sure what Transmission is about - these lyrics are a bit cryptic. A propulsive and energetic song that begins with Hooky’s bass line and builds to a crescendo of Ian screaming the command to dance as he frantically pours out all of his angst with such an urgency that it’s almost frightening - especially if you’ve seen it.
2. Atmosphere - Single (1980) The most gorgeous Joy Division song. And that wouldn’t be saying much except that yes, this song is really, REALLY beautiful. Ian’s vocals here almost sound absurd - like a parody of some crooner, but there’s nothing else like it, and I mean it - there’s no song like this one. So beautiful yet so sad… For me the song was given a new weight as it begins to play the moment Debbie Curtis returns home to find Ian has taken his own life in the fantastic biopic Control. It’s gotten me but good each time I’ve watched it. A companion piece to Love Will Tear Us Apart perhaps? I’m writing these from the top (bottom) up even though I’m presenting them from the bottom (top) down, and I just got finished saying how LWTUA is the way Joy Division would do a love song if they did one. But Atmosphere feels the same way - “Don’t Walk Away….In Silence.” Love will tear us apart indeed… Joy Division goes Phil Spector (Wall Of Sound era - not the murdering era Phil Spector).
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Single (1980) It’s hard to put your finger on it but it just feels like this song encompasses so much of the story of Joy Division. It’s the singular representative of their body of work as a culmination, a peak, a nadir, a sadness, a poignancy, a celebration, an ascending, a descending…..all at once. Once you get it and you know the story of this band and of this singer you’ll never un-feel all of those things when you listen to Love Will Tear Us Apart. And yet this was just the amazing sum of these 4 Manchester (and Macclesfield) parts doing what they did. They were evolving, maturing and getting ready to embark on their first trip across the ocean to America 2 months after recording this song when Ian Curtis ended his life and this chapter in music. Not to be trite, but this is the way a love song would be done if Joy Division did a love song. And while it’s not as hauntingly dark and desperate like 80% of Ian’s lyrics, it’s still bleak. But that soaring intro and then the And Then He Kissed Me bassline to take it home - it’s just perfection… As I suspect many of us who love Joy Division tend to do, you wonder how much of Ian Curtis’s mental state was reflected in the lyrics and in this case for me it’s the delivery of the lyrics as well. He doesn’t raise his voice - no yells or even a ton of energy (even though the music has it in spades), and for me I hear mostly resignation as he explores a failed relationship (and perhaps many relationships) - likely inspired by his failing marriage. Even the music - the keys and Hooky’s bass line tend to double the melody of Ian’s voice almost as if to protect him - to give him a little cover so he’s not out in front and fully vulnerable on this topic as he questions where it all went wrong. It’s a song that’s pretty much impossible to get “sick” of hearing, and yes - it’s THE best Joy Division song.
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