Pitchfork

Hey, here's an idea for a Joy Division greatest hits collection. Two discs: first disc Unknown Pleasures front-to-back plus "Transmission", second disc Closer front-to-back plus "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "Atmosphere", and maybe "Dead Souls". Ba-da-bing!

Okay fine, so a two-disc best-of for a band with only two proper discs to its name might be a little unnecessary. Thus Rhino has compiled the best of the best on The Best of Joy Division, a 14-track, single-disc affair glooming up a North American dorm room near you on April 29.

"Love", "Atmosphere", and classic album tracks "She's Lost Control", "Shadowplay", and "New Dawn Fades" all make the cut, but dudes, where the eff is "Decades"?! Eh, we do get a John Peel session version of "Twenty Four Hours" as consolation.

UK residents, meanwhile, can look forward to a two-disc Best of after all. That one lands March 24 via Rhino, and the second disc collects a whole heap of John Peel session jams, a couple live numbers, and an interview with the band's Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris. Folks can scoop up the first disc (but not the second) digitally if they so choose.

Joy Division will soon be blowing up a digital video disc apparatus near you as well, as DVDs for Ian Curtis biopic Control and the documentary feature Joy Division arrive via The Miriam Collection/The Weinstein Company this spring. Look for the former June 3 and the latter June 17.

The Best of Joy Division:

01 Digital
02 Disorder
03 Shadowplay
04 New Dawn Fades
05 Transmission
06 Atmosphere
07 Dead Souls
08 She's Lost Control
09 Love Will Tear Us Apart
10 These Days
11 Twenty Four Hours (John Peel Session)
12 Heart and Soul
13 Incubation
14 Isolation

The Best of Joy Division (UK bonus disc):

01 Exercise One (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
02 Insight (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
03 She's Lost Control (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
04 Transmission (John Peel Show 31 Jan 79)
05 Love Will Tear Us Apart (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
06 Twenty Four Hours (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
07 Colony (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
08 Sound of Music (John Peel Show 26 Nov 79)
09 Transmission (Recorded live for Something Else 4 Sept 79)
10 She's Lost Control (Recorded live for Something Else 4 Sept 79)
11 Ian Curtis and Stephen Morris Interviewed by Richard Skinner