Customer Reviews

Permanent

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I didn't, bought the CD, and suffered the consequences. I love Joy Division, but as mentioned, the mastering is atrocious, part of a bad trend in how reissues are mastered these days. Like some sick disease, many labels are compressing the hell out of their reissues, losing the dynamics, musical information, and often creating digital artifacts just so the music can be loud, as if nobody had a volume control on their stereo. LISTENING TO THIS CD IS LIKE READING A BOOK IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. AFTER AWHILE, YOU JUST CAN'T TAKE IT.

The CD is also a pretty poor compilation. For example, there's an inferior remix of "Love Will Tear Us Apart." They do include the original mix, except in addition to the extra compression, they edit out a few seconds in the intro and some more time towards the end, so it's not even the full version. The track selection is also haphazard, painting in an incomplete picture of this band. I think a good single CD best-of is possible, but this isn't it. You're far better off starting with their best album, Closer, and getting the singles collection, Substance. If you love them and want more, pick up the rest; it's not like they have that many CD's (just two or three more) so it won't ruin you financially.

If this is how you remaster something, no thanks. Basically all they did was boost the loudness and limit the dynamic range like most cheesy pop albums nowadays. This distorts the music and gains you nothing that turning up the volume knob a notch or two while listening to the originals can't get you. Compare them with the un-"remastered" versions in a wav editor if you don't believe me.

Oh, there is also not much reason to get this seeing as there isn't a bad song on any of their original albums. Start with Unknown Pleasures or Substance.

There seems to be some kind of fanboy debate in here as to which is preferable for JD newbies: Substance or Permanent.

The correct answer is: neither.

Such maudlin, needlessly tendentious posturing is not cool, oh my brothers. I think we can all come together and say, "Hey y'all- just go's on an pick up the damn box set and be's done with it." Hey- you're gonna buy it anyway once you pick up one of these and become enthralled. So... Save yourself the time and effort and money of getting this or that retro-comp only to have to give it to a younger sibling or ex-girlfriend or something, once you get Heart and Soul..."

At any rate, Here's my two cents on the CD at hand.

OK- This here... it's one buck more than Substance, and one track shorter (actually, two tracks shorter once you discount the worthless retread of LWTUA): that's strike one. The remastering isn't quite so bad (pick up some old blues CDs by Son House or Skip james or Charlie Patton and then bitch to me about sound quality here), but it's not as good as the releases proper or Substance, and seeing as how their producer, Martin-ZERO Hannett's sound is certainly tainted to say the least- strike two.

Finally: the track selection... While I have problems with certain omissions on BOTH CDs (Substance ain't got day of the lords, shadow play, and disorder, Exercise one, this doesn't have the last two either, not mention to mention Digital- maybe THE quintessential JD song)... I have more of a problem with track selection on this one. Most glaring is, again, the remix version of LWTUA: ugh. To compound that rather serious blight on the project are some tunes of dubious importance. The fact that Novelty (the only decent recording of which is a punked out raw as hell version on the Warsaw demos) somehow made its way onto BOTH releases never ceases to disturb me. Failures really bothers me too. As does The Only Mistake. And Passover. Not bad tunes, but to put them on and leave off so many other so much more interesting/visceral stuff- strikes four through ten.

No Colony. No New dawn fades. No Ceremony (that's kinda ok as it only exists for JD as a rough demo and live track, more a New Order tune). No Wilderness. No Insight. No Komakino. No Decades. No Candidate. No Atrocity Exhibition. No Ice Age. No Interzone. Nothing good here from the Warsaw days, whereas Substance has two nice tracks- No Love Lost and Warsaw.

All in all- if you must save your cash... your better off with Substance.

But really- just fork it over for the box set. I'll hold your hand and promise you it will be ok. And so will Ian. He will drag you along, kicking and screaming- and in the end- you will thank him...

Shrugging off the other reviews about the bad remastering, I bought this CD eager and excited to listen to the great compilation of songs. But I just want to caution all potential buyers, the sound remastering is VERY poor and it's difficult to listen to. If you like the quality of Closer and Unknown Pleasures, then I think you'll be disappointed with this one. And this is coming from someone who is usually not particular about recordings. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" sounds distorted and flat and the sound remastering kills the quality of most of the other songs as well.

This is a very good Joy Division compilation, especially for those who are new to the band. If you already have Substance, Unkown Pleasures, and Closer, it would be foolish to buy this compilation because several of the tracks are repeats.

Anyways, onto the music. There are 2 versions of the song Love Will Tear Us Apart on this compilation, and i find both versions are superior to the regular version that is found on Substance. The energetic "Transmission" and dark and powerful "Atmosphere" are both EXCELLENT tracks that were never on either of Joy Divisions main releases. Also worth noting is the dark and angry "Dead Souls." Several songs from their 2 albums Unknown Pleasures (the version of She's Lost Control on this compilation is NOT the same as the version on Unknown Pleasures) and Closer.

Although this is a good compilation, if i had to choose between this and Substance i would probably go with Substance. Substance is a more diverse compilation and has more tracks, and it only costs 9 bucks on amazon right now. If you are new to Joy Division and looking to buy, I recommend Unknown Pleasures, Substance, and Closer.

I can just say that Permanent is indeed pretty pointless, as other reviewers have said. You can't say anything bad about the songs, naturally, but when put in random order, it seems clear to me that this compilation has only been released to make some money with the anniversary of Ian Curtis's death. The other CDs are much better and will cost you less: Warsaw, Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still and the Peel Sessions are still essential. Permanent is not.

Substance was an attempt to spread the genius of Joy Division to a larger audience, the general public, a year after the New Order release of the same title. It includes some of their early "punk rock" style tracks like Warsaw and Failures, that the kids like so much, along with songs that are easier, more managable to the ear of the masses like Atmosphere and LWTUA. Don't get me wrong, however, Substance is without question fantastic from start to end!

Permanent, on the other hand, reveals a different sound, a darker one. An outpouring of human emotion through music not heard before or since. Songs that had an impact on the crowds, the bands they played along with and even themselves. The painfully honest outcries expressed so humbly within the lyrics of Ian Curtis, the pounding, aching bass lines and the precise and simple guitar riffs played to perfection that were not driven by ego or pretense, that just were. Day of the Lords, Twenty Four Hours and The Only Mistake to name a few.

If you want to listen to one of the most influential bands in modern music history, don't turn on your radio, check out Permanent, a brilliant collection of the heart and soul of Joy Division's music. But, do yourself a favor and listen to both Substance and Permanent because Joy Division came to an end abrubtly, before they ever reached our shores, and every recording they left us should be heard!

Track 1 is the alternate version of Love Will Tear Us Apart. It was the B-side of the 12" single. As far as I'm aware, this version isn't available on any other Joy Division CD release.

Ignore the whining weenies who insist this collection has no merit. This is a very good intro to the band. Ordinarily I DO prefer albums, especially if they capture a time, place, theme or something else that holds the songs together in some way. But I don't feel that UNKNOWN PLEASURES or CLOSER (the band's only 2 "official" album releases during and shortly after their brief lifespan) necessarily make coherent wholes, although they both maintain a certain doom n' gloom atmosphere. I think PERMANENT is a stronger collection of songs than either of these individual albums, taking key tracks from them both as well as some essential non-album material.

Overall, I think it's also better than SUBSTANCE. Even though that collection has some essential material that's lacking on PERMANENT, it also has some early songs that sound too much like run-of-the-mill rock n' roll. Some good ones are duplicated on both.

I agree with other reviewers that the remix of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a useless re-hash. Personally, that one's far from my fav Joy Division track anyway, although it may be their most popular.

This band rocks (rocked), but in a very cold and detached way. Their music is definitely from the dark, often depressing side of the fence. Ian Curtis had an alien-sounding voice like no other. Hardly virtuosos and not always the most melodic band, but their music often has propulsive energy and intriguing rhythms, and they really were something unique (that is, until the various newer Goth bands jumped their coat-tails, some of them great, some not-so-great-to-pretty-awful). If you're new to Joy Division, PERMANENT is probably the best single disk introduction you can buy. After listening to it, you'll be in a good position to know whether or not you'd like to pursue listening further, in which case I'd go ahead and pick up their 2nd album CLOSER, or you might want to go ahead and spring for the box set as another reviewer here recommended.

NOTE - The reviewer complaining about the mix being poor may have a good point. All I can say about the sound is this: the cassette tape I have (which I picked up back in '95) SOUNDS well mixed to me except for the fact that it plays a little faster than it should. Strangely, I still think it sounds good (maybe even better - the slightly faster pace is more rockin' and the slightly higher pitched vocals are icier), but hey, I'm no perfectionist/audiofile. Still, I would think in all likelihood that the CD has been reproduced successfully without this little problem. But if this still sounds like something that might annoy you, then pick up CLOSER, the SUBSTANCE collection or their debut UNKNOWN PLEASURES - all quite worthy. But there's not a bad track on PERMANENT, and since the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" remix at the end can easily be skipped in favor of the original - 5 stars. Assuming new copies of PERMANENT were transferred properly, it's the introduction to the band I would recommend to a newbe.

Ultimately, I'm just going to say that you can't go wrong with Joy Division. They never wrote a bad song, so it's really pointless to try to pick apart a "Best Of" package based on the order or the content. However, as compilations go, there IS something lacking. You could do much , much better. This CD served as my introduction to Joy Division, and for that I'm thankful. I, like many other "new" JD fans, became interested in them after I heard the NIN cover of "Dead Souls" on the Crow soundtrack, as well as Moby's rendition of "New Dawn Fades" in Heat. So, I picked this up at a local used CD store for $7.00, and gave it a try. At first, I wasn't terribly impressed, but then I got to track #13- The Only Mistake. My jaw literally dropped to the floor... it was brilliant. I then began to really listen to the music, discovering the little nuances, and eventually I was hooked. I, however, might be the exception... so... if you're looking for a good introduction to Joy Division, go with "Closer", "Still", or "Substance". If you have those, this CD is unnecessary.