Next up for Iona’s Song of the Week takes us back to June 1979 when a Salford band released their debut album. Their second and final album was released two months after the suicide of the band’s singer, aged just 23, in July 1980. The three remaining members of the band then went on to form one of the 80s’s more iconic groups. Have you guessed who it is yet?!
Track 05, Side One (Outside), is our choice of the week and is New Dawn Fades from Joy Division’s album Uknown Pleasures. It is a classic moody melody driven by Stephen Morris’ fabulous drumming and Peter Hook’s lugubrious bass. The tune then incorporates the guitar theme before Ian Curtis melancholically sings the short lyrical section, which includes the ominous line “a loaded gun won’t set you free”! Then, 3 minutes and 37 seconds in, we are treated to one of my favourite guitar solos played by Bernard Sumner before the song fades out on a mesh of drums and bass.
After Ian Curtis’ tragic and untimely death, the band regrouped and formed New Order, who went on to scale new heights. However, the two albums released by the original band loom large on my radar, and I consider Uknown Pleasures to be a classic album, all the more remarkable as it was Joy Division’s only release during Ian’s short life.
Comentários