Joy Division - Isolation

A lot of Closer, Joy Division's second album, is too bleak for my tastes. Musically, that is; it's all pretty bleak lyrically but I don't find that quite as off-putting. Especially when those bleak lyrics are as stunning as some of these ones are.

Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro

I wasn't their biggest fan to begin with and I was particularly befuddled about the hype over Pills 'N Thrills And Bellyaches, but I give them credit for this song because (a) it's just a good song, simples and (b) the opening couplet is sheer brilliance. Remember when 30 seemed old? Jeez.

Durutti Column - Smile in the Crowd

Bleak but starkly beautiful track from Another Setting, the Durutti Column's third album and the last one that I really loved. Vini must have been in a dark, dark place when he wrote this.

From 1983.

Happy Mondays - Lazyitis

I was never really much of a Mondays fan. For some reason, they just didn't grab me in the way a lot of their contemporaries did. I tend to think it was because I didn't spend the late '80s / early '90s raving away in a drug-fuelled haze, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, that's why I haven't posted any Mondays here yet. I just didn't like them that much.

But this song really sums up how I felt all day yesterday when I had a billion things to do and just couldn't unglue myself from the TV. Warm weather does that to me, I guess. Today will be more productive. I promise.

It's from their second album, 1988's Bummed.

New Order - Dreams Never End

Just put on Movement yesterday for the first time in ages and was blown away by this track all over again. It's hard to separate New Order's early music from the circumstances that led to their formation - under that name, I mean - and I'm not really sure how this would sound to me if I was hearing it for the first time without any clue about what preceded it. But with that history in mind, I find it so hauntingly beautiful, and almost innocent in its hesitancy. Everyone loathed the production on this record but in some ways the muddled sound is almost fitting, as it underscores the sense of bewilderment surrounding the band in those very early years.

The song starts the album off on a relatively high note; most of the rest of it sounds underdeveloped and you can sort of see why they turned away from this style not long after - they just weren't comfortable in it. I still find it almost mesmerising to listen to, though, even if I'm not entirely sure how much of that is the music itself and how much is to do with the events that brought it about.

From 1981.

Joy Division - Atmosphere

I'm in this kind of mood today. Still one of the greatest, and saddest, songs ever written.

I'll post something really cheery tomorrow. Promise.

Joy Division - Shadowplay

Bit busy today so here's an old classic. I always thought this was one of Joy Division's strongest songs - it still sends shivers up my spine.

Allegedly some other famous band covered this recently, but I make a point of never listening to Joy Division covers. Unless they're by Low.

Abecedarians - They Said Tomorrow

A band I would likely never have heard of if I hadn't been visiting California in 1985 at the same time New Order were touring there, and Abecedarians were their opening act. Which was fitting, because there was definitely a big Joy Division/Section 25/etc influence on their music. I also hear a bit of the Chameleons and Comsat Angels.

Their recordings are notoriously difficult to find, but some of them were collected onto a 1990 compilation called The Other Side of the Fence. Worth getting your hands on, though I wouldn't call it essential or anything.

New Order - Leave Me Alone

Here's another one that shows off what to me was early New Order's finest quality - the astonishing subtlety to their songs, which enables you to hear something new in them even after you've heard them a thousand times and over many years - or I suppose at this point you have to say decades. I mean I don't know how many times I've listened to Power Corruption and Lies since it was released but only relatively recently did this one jump out at me as the perfect track. It's so beautifully understated, I guess it just took me a while to really notice it. Now I wonder how did I ever not realise how exquisite it is.

It also has some of the saddest lyrics they've ever written, and, well this is New Order after all... so that's saying a lot.

A perfect song to just close your eyes and listen.

The Wake - Of The Matter

The Wake started out as an atmospheric synth-pop band, along the lines of "Thieves Like Us"-era New Order. At times they even remind me of a hazier-sounding Pet Shop Boys. No, really. They weren't very well known, which is only fair because there wasn't really anything spectacular about them. But they had the nice song here and there, like this Factory single from 1985.

Later on they resurfaced on Sarah and, sounding like a totally different band, they put out a few decent if (again) not particularly inspiring indiepop records before disappearing again in the mid-1990s, seemingly for good.

Section 25 - Friendly Fires

Section 25 are one of those bands that seem to be recalled more as having been part of a scene - the late '70s/early '80s Factory scene, to be precise - than for anything they actually recorded. See also Crispy Ambulance.

Listening to them now, a lot of their music does sound very dated (and you could pick them out as a Factory band a mile away) but the standout tracks are up there with much of what, say, New Order were doing in their early years.

This is from their 1981 debut, Always Now.

New Order - Procession

Speaking of 80s tracks with amazing bass lines, here's one of my absolute favourite New Order songs, from the 1981-82 EP. While "Temptation" was the big hit off this release, "Procession" is much closer to the style I wish they'd stuck to (and, to be fair, they mostly did for the next couple of years). The electronics were present but not overwhelming; the production was still fairly minimalist and the quietly-mixed vocals added something in terms of atmosphere while distracting attention away from Bernard's always-dodgy lyrics (to be fair again, they're not too bad here). Even today, what they were doing on this record is so exciting.

I suppose there's an element of nostalgia on my part - this dates from right around the time I was beginning to discover a musical world beyond the charts - but even if that weren't the case, I still think I would get a shiver listening to it every time.

God, what a beautiful track.

Joy Division - These Days

This isn't my favourite Joy Division song, but it's one I think is always underrated. What a beautiful couplet it is that opens the song:

Morning seems strange, almost out of place
Searched hard for you and your special ways

Will there ever be a band this good again?