Please donate to help save PopMatters. We are moving to WordPress in January out of necessity and need your help.

Darkness Illuminates: Goth Punk's Great Escapism

While goth punk's theatricality dramatizes concerns about depression and suicide amongst young people today, its safe spaces are inviting to the otherwise alienated and ostracized.

Music

Industrial Punk: Here's a Finger, Now Form a Band!

For Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P-Orridge, punk's sonic harshness was welcome but it did not go far enough.

Books

There's Room in Joy Division's Expansive Universe for Jon Savage's 'This Searing Light...'

Can Jon Savage's literal book This Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else close the metaphoric book on Joy Division once and for all?

Featured: Top of Home Page

Joy Division and Jon Savage's Latest, 'This Searing Light, the Sun and Everything Else'

Jon Savage's This Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else, marks a time for considering how Joy Division became, and continues to be, so popular.

Music

Moving Units: Damage With Care

Moving Units has always crafted eminently danceable, melodically infectious dance-punk. With Damage With Care, nothing changes.

Music

New Order US Tour Kicks Off with Bang at Radio City (Photos)

New Order return to the U.S. for a short tour in support of their latest album Music Complete and visit the Late Show for a performance while in New York.

Books

Bernard Sumner's Modest Tales of Joy Division and New Order

Guitarist Bernard Sumner shares his recollections of Joy Division and New Order, both seminal post-punk outfits whose influence cannot be overstated.

Books

Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me

Bernard Sumner artfully describes where the music of Joy Division came from; distilled to a single cold, bleak, industrial Manchester night.

Bernard Sumner

Music

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

Songs of anxiety, paranoia, freak-outs, chilling verses, feverish desire, harrowing lyrics -- they all make for damn good music.

Books

"The Goodness of Privacy in a Warm Room with Books"

We all search for escape, and while music, drugs, radicalism, or fame may ease the monotony, the protagonists of so many of these tales find themselves at the end of their narratives still constrained.

Reviews

'Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division' Enters the Void but Survives the Plunge Valiantly

"On the one hand, he was ill and vulnerable; on the other, he was a screaming rock god." By taking Ian Curtis down to his own level, Peter Hook provides his mate with a fitting tribute, neither sordid nor facile, neither pat nor pandering.

Music

Cygnets: Dark Days

Canadian trio offers up mixed bag that's heavy on the cold, light on the bold.

Jedd Beaudoin

Music

Total Control: Henge Beat

Down under supergroup mixes Joy Division, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, and Devo for a good time.

Music

Counterbalance No. 64: Joy Division - 'Unknown Pleasures'

Can Joy Division’s 1979 debut make you feel the pleasures of a normal man? It's the 64th most acclaimed album of all time. We’ll share a drink and step outside for another Counterbalance.

Music

On Making that Holiday Music List and Checking It Twice

It's that time of the year, again. Music fans are making their lists of what they hope to find wrapped in pretty paper at Christmas, and music publications are making their lists of what should be on those lists. Now, I have something to say about lists.

Music

Daft Punk Is Playing at Your House: 10 Essential Dance-Rock Albums

Today, the intersection of dance music and rock music seems only natural. However, the process has been in the making for decades, and this list provides an introduction to ten of the best albums this genre combination has to offer.

Music

Counterbalance No. 41: Joy Division's 'Closer'

Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn take on Joy Division's Closer in this week’s edition of Counterbalance. It’s Number 41 on the Acclaimed Music list of the Greatest Albums of All Time. This is the way—step inside!

Events

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra: 29.June.2010 - New York

The subterranean recesses of New York City's Le Poisson Rouge were an appropriate location for Susanna’s Tuesday night performance, a mix of original tunes as well as well-known covers.

Sachyn Mital

Music

Touched by the Hand of God: Paying Tribute to the Birth of New Order

If the singer in your band suddenly died, would you call it quits? New Order did the opposite, proving in an endless stream of brilliant music that Joy Division was merely a warm-up on the path to pop greatness.

Music

Remembering Joy Division's Ian Curtis 30 Years Later (videos)

In honor of Ian Curtis' legacy, here are a pair of videos that showcase his indomitable stage presence in life, followed by Anton Corbijn's 1988 music video for the Joy Division song "Atmosphere"

Music

"Love Will Tear Us Apart": The 30th Anniversary of Joy Division's Most Enduring Anthem

The first in a multi-part series commemorating 30 years since the demise of cult legends Joy Division.

Music

"Maybe You Do Want to Grow Up After All": An Interview with Bernard Sumner

When asked about how he feels about the term "icon", Bernard Sumner tells PopMatters that "I don't think I'm a legend. I think I've just got an interesting history." This, his time with Joy Division, New Order, and new band Bad Lieutenant are all a part of this epic interview ...

Music

Nouvelle Vague: 29.January.2010 - Chicago

Words and Pictures by Rory O'Connor

Rory O'Connor

Music

Editors: In This Light and on This Evening

Band buys Casio in attempt to shake unshakeable comparison. Fails. Film at 11.

Music

El Ten Eleven + Controlled Storms: 18.Nov.09 - Philadelphia

El Ten Eleven + Controlled Storms: 18 November 2009 - The Khyber, Philadelphia

Music

The Drums: Summertime! EP

The Drums debut EP will leave you hoping for an Indian summer.

Music

Various Artists: Factory Records: Communications 1978-92

Factory Records was as influential in design, sound production, and defining what a label could be as it was in music.

Features

20 Jazz Albums You Might Have Missed in 2020

Collapse Expand Features

BROWSE ALL ALBUM REVIEWS

Reviews

Collapse Expand Reviews

PM Picks

Collapse Expand Pm Picks

New Order's danceable rhythms and quick, clean melodies inspired a slew of paler imitators then and a new onslaught of dance-punk bands in the past few decades.

While goth punk's theatricality dramatizes concerns about depression and suicide amongst young people today, its safe spaces are inviting to the otherwise alienated and ostracized.

For Throbbing Gristle's Genesis P-Orridge, punk's sonic harshness was welcome but it did not go far enough.

Can Jon Savage's literal book This Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else close the metaphoric book on Joy Division once and for all?

Jon Savage's This Searing Light, The Sun and Everything Else, marks a time for considering how Joy Division became, and continues to be, so popular.

Moving Units has always crafted eminently danceable, melodically infectious dance-punk. With Damage With Care, nothing changes.

New Order return to the U.S. for a short tour in support of their latest album Music Complete and visit the Late Show for a performance while in New York.

Guitarist Bernard Sumner shares his recollections of Joy Division and New Order, both seminal post-punk outfits whose influence cannot be overstated.

Bernard Sumner artfully describes where the music of Joy Division came from; distilled to a single cold, bleak, industrial Manchester night.

Songs of anxiety, paranoia, freak-outs, chilling verses, feverish desire, harrowing lyrics -- they all make for damn good music.

We all search for escape, and while music, drugs, radicalism, or fame may ease the monotony, the protagonists of so many of these tales find themselves at the end of their narratives still constrained.

"On the one hand, he was ill and vulnerable; on the other, he was a screaming rock god." By taking Ian Curtis down to his own level, Peter Hook provides his mate with a fitting tribute, neither sordid nor facile, neither pat nor pandering.

Not every band borne out of a great predecessor can measure up. Here are five that do.

Canadian trio offers up mixed bag that's heavy on the cold, light on the bold.

Down under supergroup mixes Joy Division, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, and Devo for a good time.

Can Joy Division’s 1979 debut make you feel the pleasures of a normal man? It's the 64th most acclaimed album of all time. We’ll share a drink and step outside for another Counterbalance.

It's that time of the year, again. Music fans are making their lists of what they hope to find wrapped in pretty paper at Christmas, and music publications are making their lists of what should be on those lists. Now, I have something to say about lists.

Today, the intersection of dance music and rock music seems only natural. However, the process has been in the making for decades, and this list provides an introduction to ten of the best albums this genre combination has to offer.

Eric Klinger and Jason Mendelsohn take on Joy Division's Closer in this week’s edition of Counterbalance. It’s Number 41 on the Acclaimed Music list of the Greatest Albums of All Time. This is the way—step inside!

The subterranean recesses of New York City's Le Poisson Rouge were an appropriate location for Susanna’s Tuesday night performance, a mix of original tunes as well as well-known covers.

If the singer in your band suddenly died, would you call it quits? New Order did the opposite, proving in an endless stream of brilliant music that Joy Division was merely a warm-up on the path to pop greatness.

It’s not surprising that Joy Division’s cigarette-smoking crowd of followers in their dark, heavy overcoats would in a few short years become the first wave of gothic rock fans.

If any band is heir to the musical path Joy Division laid out, it would be the Cure, quite possibly the second-most influential band of the post-punk era.

In honor of Ian Curtis' legacy, here are a pair of videos that showcase his indomitable stage presence in life, followed by Anton Corbijn's 1988 music video for the Joy Division song "Atmosphere"

The first in a multi-part series commemorating 30 years since the demise of cult legends Joy Division.

When asked about how he feels about the term "icon", Bernard Sumner tells PopMatters that "I don't think I'm a legend. I think I've just got an interesting history." This, his time with Joy Division, New Order, and new band Bad Lieutenant are all a part of this epic interview ...

Words and Pictures by Rory O'Connor

Band buys Casio in attempt to shake unshakeable comparison. Fails. Film at 11.

El Ten Eleven + Controlled Storms: 18 November 2009 - The Khyber, Philadelphia

The Drums debut EP will leave you hoping for an Indian summer.

Factory Records was as influential in design, sound production, and defining what a label could be as it was in music.