 Genius Lyrics
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Joy Division – Candidate
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In this piece, Joy Division makes an analogy between the harshness and difficulties that can be found in the juridic and political procedure to become a leader of men and the
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Joy Division – Shadowplay
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On “Shadowplay”, the guitars launch into a dimension reminiscent of the sonic dimensions that David Bowie and Brian Eno dwelt in during the late 1970s. The band’s sound is echoey
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Joy Division – Decades
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[Verse 1] / Here are the young men, the weight on their shoulders / Here are the young men, well where have they been? / We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber / Pushed
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Joy Division – Glass
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[Verse 1] / Hearts fail / Young hearts fail / Anytime, pressurised / Overheat, overtired / Take it quick, take it neat / Clasp your hands, touch your feet / Take it quick, take it
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Joy Division – Day of the Lords
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Unknown Pleasures‘ raw power is still gripping, most notably on the haunting “Day Of The Lords”, which appears to detail the horrors of war.
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Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
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The lyrics ostensibly reflect the problems in Ian Curtis’s marriage to Deborah Curtis, as well as his general frame of mind in the time leading up to his suicide in May 1980.
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Joy Division – Isolation
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“Isolation” is probably the Joy Division track that is most prophetic of the group’s New Order future, with its relatively upbeat feel and bright-sounding synths. However, the
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Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibition
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The title of this track comes from J.G. Ballard’s disturbing, surrealistic short story collection The Atrocity Exhibition, which sees a name-changing protagonist creating bizarre
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Joy Division – Heart and Soul
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“Heart and Soul” is a spacious, reverb-laden track built around an electronic bass line from Peter Hook and a skittering drum rhythm from Stephen Morris. Ian Curtis sings in his
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Joy Division – She's Lost Control
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Released as both an album cut and, in a hint of where New Order would eventually find itself, “She’s Lost Control” drew inspiration from Ian Curtis’s encounter with an epilepsy
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Joy Division – Twenty Four Hours
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[Verse 1] / So this is permanence, love's shattered pride / What once was innocence, turned on its side / A cloud hangs over me, marks every move / Deep in the memory, of what once
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Joy Division – Failures
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‘Failures’ marks Ground Zero for the band who would become post-punk pioneers. All unhindered thrash and nerve-exposed energy, “Failures” is Joy Division’s most obvious hat-tip to
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Joy Division – Leaders of Men
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Being released closer to the birth of the band, “Leaders of Men” comes up with a more punk, political vibe than the rest of their later work and appeared on their debut EP An Ideal
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Joy Division – Interzone
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“Interzone” is easily the most straightforward song on Unknown Pleasures. It’s unique in Joy Division’s catalogue, as the lead vocal duties are given to bassist Peter Hook, while
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Joy Division – Wilderness
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“Wilderness” is about the ways organised religion can lead people astray and be a hindrance to progress. Like many of the tracks on Unknown Pleasures, it is built on a distinctive
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Joy Division – Transmission
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[Intro] / Radio, live transmission / Radio, live transmission / [Verse 1] / Listen to the silence, let it ring on / Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun / We would have a
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Joy Division – Disorder
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“Disorder” kicks things off with drummer Stephen Morris pushing the tempo forward, and Peter Hook entering next with octave jumping basslines. The song is fast, almost punky, and
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Joy Division – Warsaw
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The song appears to be a lyrical biography of Rudolf Hess, a Nazi and Hitler’s confidante, who later became disillusioned with Hitler’s rule and fled to Scotland in an attempt to
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Joy Division – Atmosphere
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The song that John Peel played after announcing Ian Curtis’s death is unbearably close and brooding, but allows the occasional shaft of light. Stephen Morris’s pattering drums
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Simon Joyner – Joy Division
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That crucial filament is all but spent / And soon it will be dark in my basement / My heart is waxing the slick floor again / Hoping i'll slip, and fall in love / Well, she gave me
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Joy Division – I Remember Nothing
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It’s amusing how the second half of Unknown Pleasures (“Shadowplay”, “Wilderness” and “Interzone” specifically) in no way prepares the listener for “I Remember Nothing”. “
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Joy Division – Komakino
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This song is likely named, in part, for the Kant Kino–a Berlin-based cinema/live venue which the band played a gig at on 21st January 1980.
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Joy Division – Autosuggestion
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Joy Division’s “Autosuggestion” seems to be related to actual autosuggestion, which is a psychological technique related to the Placebo effect.
Autosuggestion is the act of
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Joy Division – Insight
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“Insight” is perhaps one of the most overlooked Joy Division songs, and is probably one of their saddest, too. It is the track from Unknown Pleasures that most explicitly deals
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Joy Division – The Eternal
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Arguably the bleakest thing the band ever recorded, “The Eternal” is a slow and atmospheric track built around a repetitive bassline and reverb-laden drums and piano. According to
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Joy Division – New Dawn Fades
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One of the many reasons Unknown Pleasures is the landmark album it is, “New Dawn Fades” was the most overt turn by Joy Division on that record towards an epic rock moment, drawing
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Joy Division – Dead Souls
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An examination of the internal and external crises facing Ian Curtis, ‘Dead Souls’ opens with one of the singer’s most despairing lines: a plea for the certainty that he has
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Joy Division – No Love Lost
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This song first appeared on Joy Division’s debut EP An Ideal for Living, afterwards it appeared on the Substance compilation.
Originally the song had a much longer instrumental
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Joy Division – Digital
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This song first appeared on “A Factory Sample,” the first vinyl record released by Factory Records. It was also the last song played live by Joy Division at their Birmingham
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Joy Division – Passover
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The title of “Passover” refers to the Jewish celebration of the same name, and more specifically to the Biblical story it commemorates, in which the enslaved Israelites painted
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Joy Division – Novelty
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Joy Division has stated that this song is about the 1970’s punk scene coming to an end.
All the young generation of that era lived for an ideal, the punk ideal. And now that the
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Joy Division – Exercise One
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[Verse 1] / When you're looking at life in a strange new room / Maybe drowning soon, is this the start of it all? / Turn on your TV, turn down your pulse / Turn away from it all
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Joy Division – Ice Age
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One of the first and most punk-oriented songs in the Joy Division catalogue, it was written and first recorded when the band was still called Warsaw. The nuclear war theme would
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Joy Division – Colony
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[Verse 1] / A cry for help, a hint of anesthesia / The sound from broken homes / We used to always meet here / As he lays asleep, she takes him in her arms / Some things I have to
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Joy Division – Gutz
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[Intro] / Warsaw! / [Verse 1] / Don't talk to me girl - you know it's not nice / Don't laugh at murder - I won't pay the price / The facts are too high-powered - it's such a big
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Joy Division – Walked in Line
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Ian Curtis, Stephen Morris, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner settled stated that all their fathers had fought in World War II. That’s why
Joy Division talks a lot about Nazism in
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Joy Division – A Means to an End
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[Verse 1] / A legacy so far removed / One day will be improved / Eternal rights we left behind / We were the better kind / Two the same, set free too / [Chorus] / I always looked
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Joy Division – The Only Mistake
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Ian Curtis speaks on how a certain new relationship is similar to a previous one where he has a “tendency just to take” from a woman until the breaking point. This couple had an
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Joy Division – In A Lonely Place
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The original versions of both this song and ‘Ceremony’ were apparently discovered by Peter Hook on an old tape. Both songs later came to be reworked and released as New Order’s
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Joy Division – The Sound of Music
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[Verse 1] / See my true reflection cut off my own connections / I can see life getting harder / So sad is this sensation, reverse the situation / I can't see it getting better / [
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Joy Division – Inside the Line
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[Intro] / Hey you! You too! / I could make the choice for you / Dirt sticks close to you - it's all around me / Everything I try to do / I can't even seem to find the room to move
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Joy Division – From Safety to Where...?
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This was originally supposed to be on Unknown Pleasures and were recorded during the same sessions of all of the other songs of the album. Why in the end it wasn’t included in the
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