Unknown Pleasures (Collector's Edition)

Joy Division's 1979 debut UNKNOWN PLEASURES is a landmark album whose atmospheric soundscape and complex layers of emotion established the band as principal architects and ultimate icons of the post-punk movement and the U.K. Manchester scene of the late '70s. It remains one of the definitive LPs of its era. UNKNOWN PLEASURES (COLLECTOR'S EDITION) is an expanded 2CD set featuring the original album plus a bonus disc presenting historic, previously unreleased live material. When the record was first released, Jon Savage - writing for Melody Maker - called it, "a brave bulletin, a danceable dream; brilliantly, a record of place. Of one particular city: Manchester. Your reviewer might very well be biased (after all, he lives there), but it is contended that UNKNOWN PLEASURES, in defining reaction and adjustment to place so accurately, makes the specific general, the particular a paradigm." The album's ten classic songs resonate with the rich textures and deep sonic spaces of Martin Hannett's production. Highlights include "Insight," "Disorder," "New Dawn Fades" and "She's Lost Control." The second disc features a previously unreleased concert recorded live at the Factory in the band's hometown of Manchester on July 13, 1979. It features thirteen songs including "Candidate," "She's Lost Control," "Insight" and their smash single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (which did not appear on either of their original albums). Joy Division formed in Manchester, England in 1977, and had an immense and profound impact on contemporary music in a very brief time together. They recorded only two full-length studio albums, UNKNOWN PLEASURES and CLOSER, prior to lead singer Ian Curtis' 1980 suicide, just before the single "Love Will Tear Us Apart" became their breakthrough hit. The remaining members - guitarist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris - disbanded Joy Division after Curtis' death, and re-formed as New Order.