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: #5689 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

Substance/Joy Division
This complimation picks up the odd bits and pieces not included in albums before and after Ian Curtis's suicide.

This is further evidence of the importance of Joy Division's works.The bleak beauty may be better reflected on the studio albums but this shows a different edge.It includes the wonderful Love Will Tear Us Apart,their best known song.Better still is the awe inspiring Atmosphere,a icy synth classic in the Kraftwerk vibe,or the ridicously catchy Transmission.


Also,included are lesser known songs such as the basic Digtal or the wonderful Novelty.

You have to wonder what could've been,had tragedy not struck in such as it did.

rediscovery!!!!
I Was into Joy Divsion back in the late seventies.Went to see the film - 'Control' recently and rediscovered the uniqueness of this band, as they were years ahead of their time!!This continued to show with the development of 'New Order'.Should Ian Curtis have lived,who knows what they could have acheived?

The best
A lot of hype will now be forthcoming with the release of control about the legendary status of Ian Curtis. Listen to the album then go back and listen to unknown pleasures, closer and still in full and you then may realise that there is no hype. genius is often used to describe fairly mediocre talent but in the case of Joy Division it is the only description that does the band and particularly Ian, justice.
The collection which is substance provides a great overview with some of the more 'famous' tracks I would recomend it to anyone who was even remotely interested.

Steve