this album will always be on or near my top ten most played...

Complete and utter brilliance.

Joy Division's cover of 'Sister Ray' is fantastic! That's one hell of a dark song - basically the perfect track for JD to cover. Like everything Ian Curtis did, it was an incredibly intense performance - one I think I prefer to the Velvets' original. Don't get me wrong, though - the Velvets were possibly the most amazing rock band ever.

People, "Transmission" was obviously their best song, and I would even go as far as saying encompasses their sound through out their carrer. You all get a "thumbs down" for not mentioning it sooner.

live track only.

ian sounds funny, the band sounds bored, and the recording quality is pretty bad. it just doesn't work too well.

plus the lyric "He’s busy sucking on my ding-dong" just doesn't sound right coming from ian curtis' mouth.

Well I've only heard a live version. Did they record it in studio also? I thought it was pretty boss, followed the original closely. It sounds like what it is: Joy Division taking on the Velvets.

-BSD

'They did a great version of "Sister Ray", what are you talkin' bout?'

it sounds like the perfect match, the velvet underground and joy division but that cover is fucking awful. there's a reason it was exluded from the box set.

Jeeeezus...... the score is for the review, not the album.

How bad does a review have to be to get turned down on this site?

......In Reno? Just to watch him die?

I had sex with a man

HEHEHEHEHE

-BSD

They did a great version of "Sister Ray", what are you talkin' bout?

-BSD

i like how people are telling everyone why ian curtis commited suicide, like they know.

bleh.

i think everyone should fork out the money and buy the Heart & Soul box set. it's got pretty much everything the band ever recorded (sans a few forgettable tracks like 'gutz' and their cover of 'sister ray'). the live stuff is phenomenal.

I fukkk, thank you very much.

-BSD

of course not.
bsd don't make love... bsd fucks.

That definitely wasn't me. Honest.

-BSD

Well there's a difference in relevance between the Beatles and Joy Division, kid. Oh fuck this I just made love.

Being an internet elitist can wait a few more hours.

-BSD

Maybe I am retarded and dont know how this website works but what is the deal with reviewing an album that is over 20 years old. Are Beatles reviews coming next?

like half of gackt's new album was already released singles. word.

-el vaquero

BSD loves taking it in the ass

the affair he was having outside of his marriage also had a lot to do with his suicide. and yes, substance is not an album. its a singles collection. i really wish more bands would have the habit of releasing singles that arent on albums or anything. the band mclusky does that still. theyre great

i, funkisdead, am fucking down with joy division.
you should be too.

They (as in people who knew him) believe he did himself in because his seizure pills made him have drastic mood swings.

-BSD

He hung himself while listening to iggy pop........he was having serious epilepdic seizures.

so this ian curtis guy killed himself or something?

Please dont call Substance an album, it was put out around 10 years after he died. They had 2 albums if anyone's counting and they both rocked. "Still" isnt an album either. I think that their singles collection was the most impressive thing about JD. Most of my favs were singles and B sides.....something that does not exist nowadays.

this is one of my favorite records from one of my favorite bands. i dont know if i'd say they're the first band to "ever create truly depressing music", though. most of their stuff, to me at least, seems way more cold and distanced from any emotion rather than depressing. i think "closer" is better as an album but some of my favorite individual songs are on this one. the comparison to grunge doesnt make any sense to me...but whatever. if i had to describe JD's sound, i'd say post-punk meets kraftwerk. or early electronic music but with instruments instead of electronics.

'Substance' has some of their best stuff ever, "Autosuggestion" and "Atmosphere". 'Still' has some great stuff like "Ice Age" and "They Walked In Line", the latter of which I believe was covered by Genocide SS.

'Closer', I must admit, is my least favorite, but still excellent JD album. Too many un-needed sound effects. Loss of the stripped down quality of this album, their best.

And also, one of my friends called up complaining about her boyfriend, and I said "If your boyfriend were a Joy Division album, what would he be? 'Still', because stealing is for jerks!" And hung up. Good times.

-BSD

If you like Joy Division, you might want to check out the now defunct mid-late 90s Pennsylvania band, "Modern Crucifixtion."

If you like Joy Division, you should hate "The Crow." The comic and the movie(s).

This album is actually Keanu Reeves' favorite album of all time. I'm being completely serious. He mentions it every single time he talks about music or his band or the bass. He'll also mention "Love Will Tear Us Apart."

It's a great record. Perhaps not as sinister and final as "Closer," but certainly more palatable (shorter, tighter songs, structure, etc.). Maybe a better pick than "Substance," but then again only that has "Dead Souls," which is probably their best song, if you can separate it from the decent, but totally different and silly version from the movie "The Crow."

Other post-punk I like: The Banshees, Go4, PiL, and Magazine. New Order too, I guess.

-BSD

BSD likes Joy Division? Now that is really fucking unexpected.

-sickboi

Hm...Goth music before it sucked and without the make up.

"Wilderness" is fantastic, too! All of the songs are top-notch, even the punky "Interzone".

-BSD

i'd say i like closer a bit better, but i've been warming up to this one a lot lately and it's defintely a first rate album...except for wilderness.

first!

AMAZING ALBUM!
SIMPLY THE BEST!

-BSD