Music Joy Division vs New Order

Sweet Square

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So late manc 70's depression or cocaine synth 80's, which is better ?


Joy Division


New Order
 

Olly Gunnar Solskjær

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Joy Division because basically all their stuff is amazing, whereas despite much of it also being really great, a lot of New Order stuff isn't. So maths, init. But really, both.




 

Zen

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Bit of an odd given well they are well, yeah, very connected. But the the Hook/Summer/Morris has gotta be quite unique in that they have a genuinely great album album in what, at worst, 4 decades? I mean obviously their classice stuff is 79-89... but Republic and Get Ready are top albums..... I've never actually listened to the newest two albums, but Hooks out anyway right?

Bowie and Dylan aside, who else can claim, I mean especially as a group?

I'd probably heavily lean towards New Order though, the 4 albums and Blue Monday/Temptation are brilliant - Movement has it's moments.
 

Acole9

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New Order for me, they've got some great songs. I like Joy Division as well but they seem a bit more like the hipster option. Like when you buy the t shirt from H&M to look cool and someone asks you to name a song apart from Love Will Tear Us Apart and they can't.
 

SilentWitness

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Joy Division because basically all their stuff is amazing, whereas despite much of it also being really great, a lot of New Order stuff isn't. So maths, init. But really, both.




Agreed. There isn’t a Joy Division song I dislike. There are a few New Order ones I do. The best Joy Division songs > best New Order songs too.
 

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New Order have been going 40 years, on and off. Joy Division went for 3 years. So New Order have plenty of stuff you can skip in their catalog whereas Joy Division’s output is all pretty essential.

I see them as two completely separate bands so rarely find myself comparing the two directly. They are my two favorite bands.

It is my belief that the spurt of creativity Sumner/Curtis/Hook/Morris/Gilbert went on, from say 1979 to 1989, is almost unparalleled in terms of developing their own sound(s) and constantly putting out amazing music. I can think of the Beatles but otherwise I can’t think of another group of people that is comparable. Think about how different but brilliant Unknown Pleasures and Technique are; ten years separates them but they are 3/4 of the same people. That still blows my mind.
 

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Joy Division have better lyrics for sure

I love New Order though and would always pick them
 

Cheimoon

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Hm. For me, Joy Division is overrated. Yes, they were influential; but not as good themselves as they're made out to be. The first album is good, but the second album largely crap; uninspired dirges. They have a lot of good non-album stuff though.

New Order started out of fairly crap as well; there are only a few tracks on their first three albums that I like. Then they get into imperial mode for a short bit - before they get into their acid/techno period, which I don't like again. Funnily, I do like their post-2000 albums.

Neither band is an all-time great to me (apart from JD's influence on others), but they both do have awesome heights. Not sure which one I'd choose if I would get to create my own 60-min Best Of album; but probably New Order.

I'll have Gang Of Four for that first wave of postpunk any day.
 

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New Order have been going 40 years, on and off. Joy Division went for 3 years. So New Order have plenty of stuff you can skip in their catalog whereas Joy Division’s output is all pretty essential.

I see them as two completely separate bands so rarely find myself comparing the two directly. They are my two favorite bands.

It is my belief that the spurt of creativity Sumner/Curtis/Hook/Morris/Gilbert went on, from say 1979 to 1989, is almost unparalleled in terms of developing their own sound(s) and constantly putting out amazing music. I can think of the Beatles but otherwise I can’t think of another group of people that is comparable. Think about how different but brilliant Unknown Pleasures and Technique are; ten years separates them but they are 3/4 of the same people. That still blows my mind.
The spurt of creativity went well into the 90s - the Electronic and Revenge albums were great and really showed Barney's overall influence on the JD/NO sound without Hooky and vice versa. Republic, which came out in 92 iirc was also one of their best works. The Other Two and Hooky's Monaco project weren't bad either.
 
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lsd

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New order as you need to chronically depressed with rverything to listed to Joy Diviosion.

Electronic were better than both and so was his other group Bad Lieutenant
 

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I saw Joy Division several times in the 78-80 era and never really “got” them. I was a huge Buzzcocks fan and found JD’s dirges dull and self-indulgent. At the time I wondered if I was just getting old; I was 21/22 and their adoring fans seemed to still be in their teens.

40 years on I’ve come to appreciate them far better. Maybe I was actually too young.

New Order have never done a lot for me. I preferred the trashy camp dance pop of the 80s to their more worthy stuff.
 

DOTA

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Doubt I could name 10 songs of either but Ceremony and She's Lost Control are great tunes so it's not a hard call.
 

Gazza

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New order as you need to chronically depressed with rverything to listed to Joy Diviosion.

Electronic were better than both and so was his other group Bad Lieutenant
I listen to Joy Division when I’m not depressed. Their fast paced songs are great for working out too.
Bad Lieutenant was meh as feck
 

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The spurt of creativity went well into the 90s - the Electronic and Revenge albums were great and really showed Barney's overall influence on the JD/NO sound without Hooky and vice versa. Republic, which came out in 92 iirc was also one of their best works. The Other Two and Hooky's Monaco project weren't bad either.
Electronic’s first album is brilliant. Monaco’s first has some decent tracks. The rest I can take or, more often, leave. Don’t agree that Republic is one of New Order’s best either, apart from Regret which is a great song. :)
 

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Both brilliant in surprisingly different ways.

I remember the stunned shock when news of Ian Curtis's death circulated around my school. I was about 16 at the time and New Order were huge in my year/circle of friends.

New Order were a huge part of my Uni years in Manchester in the mid 80's - Blue Monday playing at top volume in the Hacienda with the store illuminating the striped industrial pillars is an image still burned into my brain all these years later. That New Order owned the place and sometimes hung out there made it even better.
 
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Electronic’s first album is brilliant. Monaco’s first has some decent tracks. The rest I can take or, more often, leave. Don’t agree that Republic is one of New Order’s best either, apart from Regret which is a great song. :)
I thought Monaco was a bit of a letdown. Well, I only know Music For Pleasure. The first track is amazing (What Do You Want From Me) and could've been a strong New Order track. Most of the rest sounds like cheap dance to me - and then there's that Oasis track.

Probably it's just a genre thing. As I said above, I don't much like New Order's straight-up dance stuff either.
 

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New Order for me, one of my all time favourite bands. I like Joy Division also but I listen to New Order a lot more.
 

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Joy Division and it’s not even close. These two albums are amongst the very best records ever made. New Order is just good.
 

Eckers99

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I love Joy Division but I have to be in a certain mood to listen to them, which gets rarer the older I get. I listen to New Order a lot though, probably because I listen to music around the family more these days and they won't object to upbeat indie-pop but they'd be less keen on listening to the whole of Closer.
 

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Its a bit strange attempting to distinguish between the two since all songs were generally written by the same people. Bernard and Hooky's influences in particular, were pretty dominant from the late 70s all the way through 2005.
 

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Raoul

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Nah although I might give that podcast a listen now.

Made the thread due to an article in the guardian about the best New Order songs(https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/07/new-order-30-greatest-tracks-ranked).
That's a terrible list to be fair. Any list that includes a random track like Tutti Fruiti but not Touched by the Hand of God simply can't be taken serious. Also, several of New Order's later very good tracks like 60 miles and hour, Krafty, and Singularity aren't even on the list.
 

Raoul

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Singularity is probably their best track post Hooky imo. Great old school NO songwriting by Barney that could've easily been on Brotherhood, Substance or Technique.

 

justsomebloke

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I love them both, but to me there's really no contest - it's got to be Joy Division. Despite the fact I was hugely into New Order well before I got into Joy Division.

New Order is a matter of some good albums and a few brilliant songs (Blue Monday, Thieves Like Us, True Faith etc). Joy Division is a matter of two albums that are both timeless classics, in addition to which they released several brilliant songs that aren't on either of their two albums (Something Must Break, Atmosphere etc). Just a different level of quality all round.
 

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Both. For the same reasons and different ones. I would be very hard pushed to choose between the two.

Like asking to choose between Atmosphere and Your Silent Face. Transmission and Tutti Frutti. C'est Impossible! Both awesome.
 

MoskvaRed

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I’d say New Order but I have to admit that their albums do sound more rooted to a time and place. Would someone who hadn’t been around in the late 80s want to listen to “Technique”?
 

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New Order is a lighter listen, but Joy Division is special to my soul: so I’d go with Joy Division.
 

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Joy Division by a mile.
I still enjoy New Order pre 1985/86 now and again but the group lost so much lyrically and vocally with the death of Curtis.
 

Superunknown

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Honestly, I adore both. They're different enough so that both can coexist quite happily.

New Order's version of Ceremony, specifically this version is most likely my all-time favourite song. It's a masterpiece.


Overall, I think I'm slightly more into the Joy Division camp, but I can't imagine my life without New Order's influence. Temptation, Bizarre Love Triangle, Age of Consent, Truth Faith, Elegia, etc.

As for Joy Division, when Disorder hits, I just fecking lose it. It's brilliant. Utter brilliance. Bernard's guitar sounds just hit me right in my soul and it honestly hurts. I actually played that song last night and I swear it gets better with every listen. Dead Souls has a similar effect on me. But Disorder is just special. Criminally underrated.