Album of the Day

On this day in 1978, Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson saw Joy Division for the first time when the band performed at the “Stiff Test - Chiswick Challenge” in Manchester, England; Gretton wound up managing the quartet, and Wilson's Factory Records label would release their debut album, UNKNOWN PLEASURES, a year later. Producer Martin Hannett completed the behind-the-scenes dream team, providing an edgy ambiance to Joy Division's disconsolate post-punk. Ian Curtis' anguished delivery and Peter Hook's melodic bass work give a strange allure to songs like “She's Lost Control,” “New Dawn Fades” and “Shadowplay,” and while Curtis' 1980 suicide gave Joy Division's music a fatalistic aura, UNKNOWN PLEASURES has a stark power that suggests a band ready to conquer the world.