Track Listing

1. She's Lost Control
2. Dead Souls
3. Atmosphere
4. Love Will Tear Us Apart
5. Warsaw
6. Leaders Of Men
7. Digital
8. Transmissions
9. Autosuggestion
10. Incubation
11. No Love Lost
12. Failures
13. Glass
14. From Safety To Where
15. Novelty
16. Komakino
17. These Days

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3772 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-04
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Released eight years after vocalist Ian Curtis's suicide, Substance comprises the material recorded by Joy Division concurrent to their two studio albums Unknown Pleasures and Closer in the form of singles and b- sides. With most bands, this would mean an odds and sods collection but Joy Division simply didn't produce odds and sods. When Joy Division made a single they treated it as a fresh artefact, rather than pull a track from their albums, which was unforgivable laziness in their eyes. Substance, then, contains some of Joy Division's greatest works. There are outtakes from their earliest days such as "Digital", which in spite of their scratchy punkiness and odd bum note hinted at a coming hurricane of intensity, a band poised on the brink of a terrible beauty. This was quickly realised with the epileptic frenzy of 1979's "Transmission", the glacial majesty of 1980's "Atmosphere" and the horribly apt "Love Will Tear Us Apart". --David Stubbs

Customer Reviews

An Essential Purchase
With the success of New Order's singles compilation Substance in 1987, it was a welcome relief that one for Joy Division was released a year later. Confusingly, both shared the same name. Joys Divisions Substance became the home for the bands long out of print singles which demonstrated that the band could bring the same energy to the more focused "7 or "12 released that they did on an album. Though the earliest tracks like "Warsaw" and "Leaders of Men" were the most punk orientated songs the band ever cut to disc and do stand out as being some what out of place. However, they do show how quickly the band found their sound and quickly got into the groove by producing some memorable sides that by the time they released Digital and Autosuggestion, it was perfectly apparent. All of the songs were brilliantly recorded by their producer, Martin Hannett. The cold clear sounds of CD gives it a very cold feel that only adds to the sound the band were trying to produce. By the time of the final singles, Joy Division were beginning to produce some of the greatest "7's ever recorded. Even though not to everyone's taste, Atmosphere and Dead Souls demand to be heard and then there is their swan song. Love Will Tear Us Apart, the song that the band will always be associated with is a portrait of love and connection endlessly turning in on itself to destruction. The melody is beautiful and this is one of the great lyrics. If anyone says that popular music lyrics and stupid and irrelevant, show them this. A true masterpiece. It is just a shame that they never got to go further due to the death of their lead singer Ian Curtis. Would they have ended up sounding like New Order anyway, we will never know. The CD edition also included the B-sides. This collection is essential and it is unfortunate that they never achieved success in their life time. A must buy for any music fan.

The biography of an empowering band
I would describe this compilation as a sampled biography from the beginning to the end of their short but phenominally brilliant existence in musical history. I would suggest obtaining the two albums 'Unknown pleasures' and 'Closer' if you are new to the band first, and then buy this as a compliment to those. This album shows how the band and most notabily Ian Curtis developed from the fast moving and quite heavy early tracks such as 'Warsaw' and 'Failures' to the remarkable masterpiece - like later tracks such as 'Dead Souls', 'Atmosphere' and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' I cannot really put into words how much I like some of the tracks on this album but the fact that I listened to it almost non - stop for a good few weeks after I bought it should give you a clue of how much I adore it.

As relevant now as then.
If there is one band I keep on returning to after all these years-it is this one, Joy Division. You know how you get bored with most of your collection? Not so with Joy Division. It is still an occasion when a Joy Division track plays, it is music which you listen to with all of your mind, it takes you away from the present and you get absorbed into the stunning drum and bass interplay. No one has matched the pulse of this music - it is different, masterfull, evocative and above all it still remains fresh and immediate. Buy this - it is an essential to any collection. Joy Division will be a key reference band for many years to come.