The Best Of Joy Division

Album Review

Now that Unknown Pleasures, Closer, and Still have been given the deluxe two-disc reissue treatment — which coincided with a movie, Control, and followed, throughout the previous 20 years, the Substance and Permanent compilations, the Heart and Soul box set, a couple live discs, a BBC disc, tribute sneakers, a tribute Zune, and tribute bands (few of which performed actual covers) — there might as well be an official point of introduction with a straightforward title. Just happening to coincide with the release of Grant Gee's eponymous documentary, The Best of Joy Division is a 14-track, 55-minute grab bag of scattered tracks from the band's discography. It is impossible to call these the best, or even the highlights, when the band recorded no obvious lowlights and (only in a relative sense) a handful of midlights. Not including alternate mixes or demos that have floated out in various forms, Joy Division recorded short of 50 songs, none of which would be completely unjustifiable on a single-disc summary. Beyond the no-brainers "Love Will Tear Us Apart," "She's Lost Control," "Transmission," and "Atmosphere," the program doesn't lean in any one direction, pulling fairly evenly from the two proper albums while offering seven tracks that were compiled originally for Substance. It is kind of strange, however, that the somewhat slight instrumental "Incubation" was chosen over "Atrocity Exhibition" and "A Means to an End," and that there is nothing from An Ideal for Living (the band's first release, a four-track EP), especially when there were 25 minutes of available space on the disc. While this is one of many ways to become acquainted with a body of work that adds up to some of the most tense, precise, and powerful rock music made, the best solution is to get as much as possible at once and submit.