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A review by wmhenrymorris
Unknown Pleasures by Chris Ott
This covers all of Joy Division's oeuvre rather than just the album Unknown Pleasures, which means that it won't be of much interest to the band's die-hard fans unless they are compulsive completists. It is, however, a fairly good introduction if you are intrigued by the story of Ian Curtis and Joy Division, but don't yet know much about, dealing forthrightly with a host of issues related to the band.
That said, there are sections of music criticism, especially of the tracks on Unknown Pleasures itself that are fairly interesting and a couple of insights to be gleaned. The problem, though, is that so much of the book is trying to give context to Curtis' suicide and tease out the mystery of how they band went from a bunch of wannabe punks to something else quite entirely. However, I guess it does provide on service in that Ott generally sidesteps the overwroughtness that tends to attach itself to Joy Division. I mean, I love Paul Morley but he does go on.
That said, there are sections of music criticism, especially of the tracks on Unknown Pleasures itself that are fairly interesting and a couple of insights to be gleaned. The problem, though, is that so much of the book is trying to give context to Curtis' suicide and tease out the mystery of how they band went from a bunch of wannabe punks to something else quite entirely. However, I guess it does provide on service in that Ott generally sidesteps the overwroughtness that tends to attach itself to Joy Division. I mean, I love Paul Morley but he does go on.