song: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" - Joy Division
username: curtkare
date of post: Dec 19, 2007 - 18:45

I came late to the Joy Division party. In 1984, I was 18 years old. Ian Curtis had been gone for several years, and New Order was the order of the day. I was drawn to their mystique of despair; the dark side of rock that makes us so fascinated with it's dead stars. I collected all of their vinyl. When CDs came out, I bought those too. New Order was popular, but not exactly cool. Joy Division was cool. I felt I was cool for knowing about them. 

With the passage of time, I've come to appreciate them musically in a way I couldn't have possibly understood back then. Yes, this is their best song. It fits right in today with a whole current generation of music that owes its roots to that prior generation. The drums, the synthesizers, the lyrics, the vocals, all seem stripped to the bare minimum, yet come across more layered and nuanced than much "richer" productions of that time or this. This song doesn't take me back, it shows me the way forward.