History Music / UnknownPleasures

* WithFriendsLikeThese: "I Remember Nothing".
* WretchedHive: The lyrics paint the image of one.

* RefrainFromAssuming: No, the song is not called "Remember When We Were Young"; it's called "Insight".

''Unknown Pleasures'' is the debut studio album by English PostPunk group Music/JoyDivision, released in 1979 as the very first album from Creator/FactoryRecords. It would be the only full musical album front singer Ian Curtis lived to see released, as he took his own life in 1980; a posthumous album, ''Music/{{Closer}}'', was released following Ian's suicide.

* HumansAreBastards: "Wilderness":
--> ''"I traveled far and wide through prisons of the cross''
--> ''What did you see there?''
--> ''The power and glory of sin''
--> ''What did you see there?''
--> ''The blood of Christ on their skins"''

* InnocentBystander: The protagonist in "Shadowplay":
--> ''"As the assassins all grouped in four lines, dancing on the floor,''
--> ''And with cold steel, odour on their bodies made a move to connect,''
--> ''But I could only stare in disbelief as the crowds all left."''

* YouCannotKillAnIdea: Inverted in "Wilderness":
--> ''I saw all knowledge destroyed.''

* EchoingAcoustics: Martin Hannett's production used a lot of reverb, courtesy of then-new digital delay. The echoes give the album a ghostly feel.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The two sides of the LP version are labeled "Outside" and "Inside".

* ShoutOut:
** The Music/ArcticMonkeys album ''AM'' has an album cover that resembles ''Unknown Pleasures''.
** The {{Biopic}} ''Film/{{Control}}'' (2007), about Ian Curtis, is named after the song "She's Lost Control".
** "Interzone" is a shout-out to Creator/WilliamSBurroughs' ''Literature/NakedLunch''.

While the album failed to chart on initial release in the U.K. Official Albums Chart, it peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. indie chart when it was first published in January 1980. Later, the album peaked at No. 71 on the standard U.K. Albums chart when it was reissued following Ian Curtis' suicide, as well as [[PosthumousPopularityPotential topping the indie chart]] at the same time. The album completely missed the Billboard album chart when it was belatedly released stateside in October 1980, but received wide critical acclaim.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The two sides of the vinyl version are labeled "Outside" and "Inside".

* PostPunk: A cornerstone of the genre, frequently considered the TropeCodifier for the British side of the movement. For a while, it was labeled the outright TropeMaker of post-punk as a whole by music analysts, but later observations noted that it had already been forming as early as 1976, around the time when PunkRock itself began to have a defined sound. Still, most will agree that a huge chunk of British post-punk is indebted to the template that ''Unknown Pleasures'' first set, with its forebodingly cavernous sound and brooding lyrics being imitated by a large number of acts in the years after its release, itself generally seen as the start of post-punk's brief but massively influential four-year heyday.

Upon release, the album was massively acclaimed by the majority of critics, who praised its cavernous, enigmatic sound that lent to it a distinctly labyrinthine quality not previously heard in British rock. Its acclaim would only further grow after Ian Curtis' suicide, being near-unanimously upheld today as one of the greatest albums ever made. Fan favourites from this album include "Disorder", "Day of the Lords", "Insight", "She's Lost Control", "Interzone" and "Shadowplay". While the album failed to chart on initial release in the U.K. Official Albums Chart, it peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. indie chart when it was first published in January 1980. Later, the album peaked at No. 71 on the standard U.K. Albums chart when it was reissued following Ian Curtis' suicide, as well as [[PosthumousPopularityPotential topping the indie chart]] at the same time. The album completely missed the Billboard album chart when it was belatedly released stateside in October 1980, but received wide critical acclaim. The album would later go on to be placed at No. 40 on ''Magazine/{{NME}}''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/NME500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 2013 list]] of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and currently sits at No. 67 on ''WebSite/AcclaimedMusic''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums dynamic list]] of the 3000 most critically lauded albums.

* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: "She's Lost Control":
-->''And how I'll never know just why or understand''
-->''She said I've lost control again.''
-->''And she screamed out kicking on her side''
-->''And said I've lost control again.''
-->''And seized up on the floor, I thought she'd die.''
-->''She said I've lost control.''
-->''She's lost control again.''
-->''She's lost control.''

* PostPunk: A cornerstone of the genre, frequently considered the TropeCodifier for the British side of the movement. For a while, it was labeled the outright TropeMaker of post-punk as a whole by music analysts, but later observations noted that it had already been forming as early as 1976, around the time when PunkRock itself began to have a defined sound. Still, most will agree that a huge chunk of British post-punk is indebted to the template that ''Unknown Pleasures'' first set, with its forebodingly cavernous sound and brooding lyrics being imitated by a large number of acts in the years after its release, itself generally seen as the start of post-punk's [[ShortLivedBigImpact brief but massively influential]] four-year heyday.

* PostPunk: A cornerstone of the genre, frequently considered the TropeCodifier for the British side of the movement. For a while, it was labeled the outright TropeMaker of post-punk as a whole by music analysts, but later observations observed that it had already been forming as early as 1976, around the time when PunkRock itself began to have a defined sound. Still, most will agree that a huge chunk of British post-punk is indebted to the template that ''Unknown Pleasures'' first set, with its forebodingly cavernous sound and brooding lyrics being imitated by a large number of acts in the years after its release.

''Unknown Pleasures'' is the debut studio album by English PostPunk group Music/JoyDivision, released in 1979 as the very first album from Creator/FactoryRecords. It would be the only full musical album front singer Ian Curtis lived to see released, as he hanged himself in 1980; a posthumous album, ''Music/{{Closer}}'', was released following Ian's suicide.

* DrivenToSuicide: A theme of the album.

* PostPunk: A cornerstone of the genre.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "She's Lost Control" was inspired by a woman with UsefulNotes/{{Epilepsy}} at Ian's day job attempting to find employment for her, as well as Ian's own experiences with epilepsy. When the woman stopped showing up, he called her home to find she'd died after a seizure.

* ReligionIsWrong: "Wilderness" (Though to be fair, it's mostly about atrocities committed in the name of Christ):

** The {{Biopic}} ''Film/{{Control}}'' (2009), about Ian Curtis, is named after the song "She's Lost Control".

Upon release, the album was massively acclaimed by the majority of critics, who praised its cavernous, enigmatic sound that lent to it a distinctly labyrinthine quality not previously heard in British rock. Its acclaim would only further grow after Ian Curtis' suicide, being near-unanimously upheld today as one of the greatest albums ever made. Fan favourites from this album include "Disorder", "Day of the Lords", "Insight", "She's Lost Control", "Interzone" and "Shadowplay". While the album failed to chart on initial release in the U.K. Official Albums Chart, it peaked at No. 2 on the U.K. indie chart when it was first published in January 1980. Later, the album peaked at No. 71 on the standard U.K. Albums chart when it was reissued following Ian Curtis' suicide, as well as [[DeadArtistsAreBetter topping the indie chart]] at the same time. The album completely missed the Billboard album chart when it was belatedly released stateside in October 1980, but received wide critical acclaim. The album would later go on to be placed at No. 40 on ''Magazine/{{NME}}''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/NME500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 2013 list]] of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and currently sits at No. 67 on ''WebSite/AcclaimedMusic''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums dynamic list]] of the 3000 most critically lauded albums.