Of all the old droney type music I used to listen to a lot, this one song, Interzone by Joy Division, is still one of my top favorites. It's short, driven and annoying. It stabs right into my brain and makes me jittery. When I dumped my records and got cds not everyone made the cut. Joy Division did. As I listened to less and less music I started playing favorite songs instead of whole albums. I never was a big mix tape maker. I never got an MP3 player until I got a LEGO one. It's isn't that great and I never used it much.
You can hear the whole album that Interzone comes from on YouTube. Unknown Pleasures came out June 15 1979. I bought the record the day it came out and played it a lot. Hardly anyone I knew was into the band, so that was fun. It's got it fans though. The Rolling Stone voted it the 24th spot it it's 50 Coolest Albums. It's gets on lots of lists, like essential punk albums, best British albums, that sort of thing. I always thought it was a great album but it's certainly not going to appeal to most folks.
Here's the playlist of the album
- "Disorder" – 3:32
- "Day of the Lords" – 4:49
- "Candidate" – 3:05
- "Insight" – 4:29
- "New Dawn Fades" – 4:47
- "She's Lost Control" – 3:57
- "Shadowplay" – 3:55
- "Wilderness" – 2:38
- "Interzone" – 2:16
- "I Remember Nothing" – 5:53
If you get through that alive, you can tackle the bands 2nd album Closer. Or not. Singer Ian Curtiss didn't get through it alive. He committed suicide soon after the recording of Closer. You can see a bit of his life, fictionized, in the movies 24 Hour Party People and Control. I have seen the first one and enjoyed it but not the second one. The band was set to go to North America but broke up and reformed as New Order. I was not interested in that band and never bought more than a couple of their albums before I stopped. I didn't keep those albums either.
Here's something that is much more fun to listen to. It's usually soothing to listen to ZZ Top, but some of their songs have a bit of an edge that makes them stand out from the rest of the group. Everyone is going to have a different favorite with a different reason for liking them. My favorite 3 are El Diablo, Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers and Master Of Sparks. They all have some real nice guitar work and vocals that stand out for me. The last two songs come from Tres Hombres. I think it's their best album. Hands down. It just barely made the Rollig Stone top 500 albums, debuting at 498 and being revised to 490 a few years later. El Diablo came from Tejas. It's a good album with an exceptional song. ZZ Top's first 6 albums made it to CD in my house, In a six album, 3 cd set, but nothing after got replaced and all the records got sold ages ago. You can hear and see lots of ZZ Top songs if you go search YouTube. I'm only going to listen to the three I like. You'll have to go on your own.