A review by gengelcox
Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott

dark informative sad medium-paced

3.0

This is the first of the 33 1/3 series to feature an album I’ve never cared for. Some of the other books have been about albums I didn’t know, but this is one that I have listened to in the past and simply not been able to understand why people love it so much. Possibly, it’s because I was never a suicidal goth as a teen or even mildly disenchanted. I may not have been the most popular person, but I had friends and enjoyed a fairly social existence and never had the desire to end it all.

That may be treating Ian Curtis’ true disease a bit lightly, but I have a knee-jerk attitude to the hagiography surrounding the rock stars who felt they had to burn out instead of fade away, either consciously or unconsciously. Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, had some real health issues. He suffered from epilepsy and the rock-n-roll lifestyle he desired to partake of was antithetical to the treatment he needed for that disease. Conversely, by not taking care of himself, he likely ruined his mental health, encouraging him in these thoughts of following in the go out grandly style of his rock gods (not to mention his disdain for Bowie, who wrote “All the Young Dudes” and failed to live up to its message). 

What does all that have to do with Unknown Pleasures. Simply it is impossible to talk about Joy Division without confronting Curtis. So many people, including the author Chris Ott, find Curtis’ lyrics to be genius; I find them overwrought and tepid. The music behind the words is slightly of more interest to me, such that I’m not surprised I enjoy the work of New Order (i.e., Joy Division post-Curtis) much more. 

To each their own. Not everyone loves the same albums. I enjoyed reading this to learn more about an album and band I never cared for and came to understand possibly why given some of the details of the life of Curtis and the band and the production choices.