 Genius Meanings
|
|
Joy Division – New Dawn Fades
|
|
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
|
|
Moby – New Dawn Fades (Acoustic Version)
|
|
[Verse 1] / A change of scene / A change of style / A change of hopes / With no regrets / A chance to watch / Admire the distance / Still occupied / Though you forget / Different
|
|
Joy Division – She's Lost Control
|
|
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
|
|
Joy Division – Exercise One
|
|
[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
|
|
Joy Division – Transmission
|
|
[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
|
|
Joy Division – Dead Souls
|
|
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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Disorder
|
|
“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
|
|
New Order (Ft. Moby) – New Dawn Fades
|
|
[Verse 1: Moby] / A 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
|
|
Joy Division – Digital
|
|
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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Shadowplay
|
|
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
|
|
Joy Division – The Only Mistake
|
|
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
|
|
Joy Division – Walked in Line
|
|
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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Wilderness
|
|
“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
|
|
Joy Division – Ceremony (Live at Birmingham University, Birmingham, 2nd May 1980)
|
|
One of the primary and captivating differences between the initial Joy Division version of ‘Ceremony’ and New Order’s take are the lyrics. Curtis’s original lyrics were never
|
|
Joy Division – A Means to an End [Live At Birmingham University]
|
|
[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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Day of the Lords
|
|
Unknown Pleasures‘ raw power is still gripping, most notably on the haunting “Day Of The Lords”, which appears to detail the horrors of war.
|
|
|
Joy Division – The Sound of Music
|
|
[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 / [
|
|
Joy Division – Candidate (Live)
|
|
[Verse 1] / Forced by the pressure / The territories marked / No longer the pleasure / I've since lost the heart / Corrupted from memory / No longer the power / It's creeping up
|
|
Joy Division – Glass
|
|
[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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Interzone
|
|
“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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Ice Age
|
|
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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Shadowplay [Live at Birmingham University]
|
|
[Verse 1] / To the center of the city where all roads meet waiting for you / To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank searching for you / I was moving through the silence
|
|
|
Joy Division – Candidate
|
|
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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Insight
|
|
“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
|
|
Joy Division – Something Must Break
|
|
[Intro] / One, two, three, four / [Verse 1] / Two ways to choose / A razor's edge / Remain behind / Go straight ahead / Room full of people / Room for just one / If I can't break
|
|
|
Joy Division – Novelty (Live)
|
|
[Intro] / Uh, heh / This / This first one is a very old song, um / About two years ago? Something you might remember / [Verse 1] / When the people listen to you, don't you know it
|
|
|
Joy Division – Insight (Live)
|
|
[Verse 1] / Guess your dreams 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
|
|
|
Joy Division – I Remember Nothing
|
|
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”. “
|
|
|
Joy Division – The Kill
|
|
[Verse 1] / Moved in a hired car and I find no way to run / Adds every moment longer, had no time for fun / [Chorus] / Just something that I knew I had to do / But through it all I
|
|
|
Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibition (Live)
|
|
[Intro] / Welcome to the atrocity exhibition / [Verse 1] / Asylums with doors open wide / Where people had paid to see inside / For entertainment they watch his body twist / Behind
|
|
|
Joy Division – Shadowplay (Live)
|
|
[Verse 1] / To the center of the city where all roads meet, waiting for you / To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank searching for you / I was moving through the silence
|
|
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
|
|
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.
|
|
Joy Division – Warsaw
|
|
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
|
|
Joy Division – Atmosphere
|
|
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
|
|
|
Joy Division – Disorder (Live)
|
|
[Intro] / This song's called "Disorder" / [Verse 1] / 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
|
