I mentioned John Neale recently, and there were a few things that he sought to 'turn me on to' in the post-exam weeks at the end of 1982. He lent me a copy of this album, and told me, "If you listen to nothing else, check out the last track, Decades: it's soooo depressing, it's brilliant."
Actually I can't think of any music that I would call depressing. There's some that makes you want to die, for sure — but not in a bad way.
I taped the album and subsisted on that for the next six or seven years. Proving that this home taping did not kill music, I then shelled out the princely sum of £14.49 for this CD copy when it became available. It's always been my favourite Joy Division album: I like it much better than the earlier, scratchy stuff. It's the hypnotic drum patterns especially. And later I made the link with J.G.Ballard, whose name was dropped in the early-'80s NME more frequently than any band, when I finally got round to reading The Atrocity Exhibition
John also tried to persuade me that Bauhaus's Bela Lugosi's Dead was a great song. He failed on that score, though I did pay more attention to Bela Lugosi films thereafter.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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