Unknown Pleasures

Unknown Pleasures is the debut album by British rock band Joy Division. It was released in June 1979 by Factory Records and is one of the most important albums in the post-punk genre.

Cover

The cover features an illustration of several radio pulses from PSR B1919+21, the first pulsar discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell. The illustration was taken from the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy, which reprinted it from Harold Craft Jr.'s 1970 doctoral thesis; the idea came from drummer Stephen Morris. Compared to the original, however, the colors were inverted; so the cover features white lines on a black background instead of black lines on a white background. The anniversary edition released in 2019 uses an inverted version of the cover with black lines.

There was no track list on the original LP, and the record sides were not numbered either, just labeled "Inside" and "Outside".

Reception

The album, like its successor Closer, is considered a milestone in rock history that has influenced many other bands. Both Joy Division studio albums were included in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Unknown Pleasures #20 on the 100 Best Debut Albums, as well as #34 on the 40 Best Punk Albums. It ranked #40 in New Musical Express' compilation of the 500 Best Albums of All Time. Unknown Pleasures ranked #9 in Pitchfork Media's selection of the 100 Best Albums of the 1970s.