Joy Division: Still LP

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in June 2015, Rhino Records is pleased to announce the re-issue of four iconic Joy Division releases on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl. The studio albums Unknown Pleasures (1979) and Closer (1980) will be available in June and will be followed in July by Still (1981) and an expanded version of Substance (1988), both available as double-LP sets.

 

Each design replicates the original in painstaking detail, including the gatefold covers used for Still and Substance. The music heard on the albums was remastered in 2007 when Rhino introduced expanded versions of the albums. The lone exception is Substance, which features audio remastered in 2010 for the +- singles box and for the first time on vinyl, the expanded tracklist from the original CD release, plus two additional songs: “As You Said” and the Pennine version of “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” 

 

Joy Division recorded two albums before singer Ian Curtis tragically took his own life in 1980. But what the Manchester quartet lacked in longevity, it more than made up for in quality. The band’s only two studio albums were groundbreaking and helped shape the sound and mood of the alternative music that followed in the band’s wake.

 

Curtis (guitar/vocals), Bernard Sumner (keyboard), Peter Hook (bass), and Stephen Morris (drums) released their debut, Unknown Pleasures, in 1979. By the end of the year, the album’s atmospheric sound had won over fans and critics with tracks like “She’s Lost Control” and “Day of the Lords.” Closer, the group’s second album, arrived the following year and its dark and melancholy tones continued to earn rave reviews for songs like “Isolation” and “Heart and Soul.”

 

The compilations Still and Substance fill in the missing pieces of the band’s history with non-album singles (“Transmission” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart”), unreleased studio tracks (“Something Must Break” and “Ice Age”), and choice live recordings (“Disorder” and the only performance of “Ceremony.”)