GK writes about their legacy.
At the center of it all, Curtis twitched for air. “For entertainment they watch his body twist / Behind his eyes it says I still exist,” he sang on “Atrocity Exhibition.”
Read superficially, these performances support those who would view Curtis’ death as some sort of sick validation for the veracity of his lyrics. But the live performances appended to these discs resoundingly rebut that caricature. They affirm what countless concert bootlegs already have: that Joy Division was a blistering band, nothing like the one represented in the studio recordings. Sumner’s guitar tone flirts with the savagery of heavy metal, almost gleeful in the way it sends spasms of noise shooting through the mix. Hook’s boldness on bass is a given, but Morris’ furious machine-like drumming is a revelation. Curtis doesn’t hold back either. There’s no self-pity here, no despair. Just demon fury.
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