Joy Division's Next Album

Synths are all over Closer and Love Will Tear Us Apart, so it would seem Ian didn't have any particular objection to them at the time.

 

Yeah, it's pretty well documented from basically everyone involved that Curtis was the one who predominantly pushed them towards synths and electronics being massively into Krautrock and Berlin-period Bowie/Iggy.

This inspired the original name of the band, of course:

 

It would have sounded great.

 

That’s from Low Life, isn’t it?

 

Yep

 

It sure is. That’s not the first New Order album. It isn’t even the second... not exactly sure what planet the OP pulled that info from.

 

I reckon that if Ian hadn’t died then Joy Division would have evolved in a similar way to New Order but with a better singer.

 

Sorry - obviously a typo saying this was from the first NO album!

 

You're forgetting NO got a new member. Not as the new singer (something you could have expected at the end of JD in 1980), but as an extra synth power. By the arrival of Gillian Gilbert the balance in NO between guitars and electronics will be more and more to the last side...

 

I believe 'Ceremony' and 'In A Lonely Place' would have stayed a single as Joy Division were very fond of the non-album single release. The next JD album would have been like "Movement" no doubt because Bernard Sumner himself stated that Ian was the one that really nudged him into synths.

 

Considering that's not Bernards voice, but Peter Hook singing on that track, you're onto something on there.

 

That's from Low Life, their third album, released in 1985.

 

I would have loved to hear Ian Curtis rapping with John Barnes on "World In Motion".

 

Wasn't Gillian initially involved to play guitar rather than synths though? She was a guitar player in her previous band and had filled in there for Joy Division a couple of times. Barney was switching between instruments live so I think the original intention was for her to do his old guitar parts but obviously the band roles in general were pretty uncertain at the time and Barney ending up as the singer probably shifted her more towards synth work.

 

Yea Barney wasn’t able to sing and play guitar at the same time so she was recruited. It’s fun to listen to the songs with that in mind.