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Out Of Control In The Temple Of Love

10 December, 2005

I recently invested in the Joy Division four-CD boxed set Heart and Soul.  Prior to this, the only thing I’d ever heard by Joy Division was the ‘hit’ single Love Will Tear Us Apart – which is OK, but not exactly There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. But Joy Division have been given a lot of good press recently, and have been cited an influence by several bands I’ve been listening to, so I thought I’d give it a go.

And on the whole, it’s not too bad at all! Quite different from what I expected – a lot more up-beat than popular (mis)conception has it, and not really that depressing (if you can get past the deep, flat vocals and morose lyrics). I don’t think I’ll be burning my Smiths collection just yet, but a good portion of the boxed set will be taking up an extended residency on my MP3 player.

However, being one to fondle and fetish the packaging during my first listen through any new purchase (can’t do that with a download!) I was extremely disappointed at the number of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in the accompanying booklet. They have had 20 years to pull this together, so I would have thought they had time for a quick proof-read…

Although I hadn’t head much by Joy Division before, I do have a couple of New Order CDs. It’s always interesting to hear previous incarnations of a band or previous bands of the same musicians – it sheds a whole new light on material that you may already be (over)familiar with. And having now heard the entire Joy Division oeuvre, it is easy to see that New Order are really just a continuation of the same band (no surprise there, I guess). Also, being new to this material, it is very easy to see just how Joy Division have influenced many of today’s ‘contemporary’ bands.

But most revelatory was to hear just how similar Joy Division were to the Sisters of Mercy (of whom I was a huge fan back in the day). Had I known at the time that the two bands were so similar (they seemed to have different fanbases and us Goths never mixed with the ‘Joy-less’) I may have given them the benefit of a listen. (Although I never did understand how the Sisters of Mercy – with their predilection for releasing 12″ remixes clearly aimed at the dance market – could be lumped together with the surlier and rockier Southern Death Cult and Fields of the Nephilim…).

In fact, having now listened to Heart and Soul in its entirety, I’d go so far as to rate the Sisters of Mercy’s Some Girls Wander By Mistake as the superior collection. So had Andew Eldrich committed suicide, and not Ian Curtis, the Sisters of Mercy would probably be enjoying the posthumous acclaim currently afforded to Joy Division…and maybe the Mission would be the new New Order!

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