NEXT STOP, HAVANA  Robert Birnbaum blogs on all things literary at "Our Man in Boston" »
The Morning News

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Currently:

Albums

Joy Division, Substance 1977-1980

Compiling early raw material and a number of later singles and b-sides, Substance 1977-1980 is a fine, impressive collection not…

» Email this
» Save this

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andrew Womack
Andrew Womack is a founding editor of The Morning News. He is always working on the next installment of the Albums of the Year series at TMN. You can and follow his Twitter updates here.
» Advertise on TMN via the Deck

THE FOOTNOTES TOO

Infinite Summer

All summer long, take part in an endurance read of Infinite Jest, sponsored by TMN.
» JOIN UP
Compiling early raw material and a number of later singles and b-sides, Substance 1977-1980 is a fine, impressive collection not exclusively for Joy Division/Factory completists, but really for everyone, which is an uncommon effect in singles and b-sides collections, really; this often, in fact, seems like an intended album. Nevertheless, listeners will hear an obvious sense of growth over the course of the work, from the inception of the band (as Warsaw) through the record proper’s compelling climax and finale, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart,’ originally released one month before singer Ian Curtis’s death.

—Published December 20, 2000