It's been a while since I've condensed a band and I just didn't want to abandon the project. Call the gap a much-needed vacation to give me time to consume some new music and get my bearings in the modern landscape. Still, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about one of the most important stories in pop from the past three decades. New Order is a band that could really benefit from a condensed catalog, but one can't really talk about New Order without first paying homage to the band they used to be. Joy Division has been a part of the traditional pantheon of pop practically since they ceased to exist. Likewise, Ian Curtis instantly became a tragic legend after his suicide in 1980, another victim to the familiar overlap between rock and depression. Peel away all the well-worn biographical layers and what remains of Joy Division is a band that found an incredible sound just shortly before its end.

• Warsaw

Warsaw was the second of three names the band took in its brief history. They began playing under the very punk name The Stiff Kittens, adopting the name Warsaw not long after. They took the name Joy Division in order to differentiate themselves from another local punk act, Warsaw Pakt. I like beginning with this song not just because of its relation to the band's earlier name, but because it's the finest example of their early sound. They were a punk band, but not entirely. They were like art school students imitating a punk band and they soon moved beyond the style to become one of the most important pioneers of Post Punk.

• A Means To An End

Exhibit A: This song. It's not punk. In fact, it's more openly competent than punk and a lot easier to take seriously. Closer, the band's second and last studio album, proves what kind of amazing stuff Joy Division could have continued to produce had Curtis lived to record a third album. This is not to downplay Bernard Sumner's songwriting ability, merely that Ian Curtis brought something to the band that disappeared with his death.

• Atmosphere
• Atrocity Exhibition
• Dead Souls

Trent Reznor did a fairly good cover of "Dead Souls" for the soundtrack to The Crow. What's missing from his cover is the driving, razor-sharp guitar that makes the original so exciting. One of my top-ten musical wishes is to see this song performed live by the original lineup.

• Disorder
• Glass
• Heart and Soul
• Incubation

After Curtis died, Factory Records released a compilation called Substance that contained some out-of-print singles, B-sides and greatest hits from Joy Division. In piecing together a complete Joy Division catalog, it's a weirdly oblong addition, but well worth it.

• Interzone
• Isolation
• Komakino
• Love Will Tear Us Apart

This is Joy Division's biggest hit single. It didn't peak on the charts until after Curtis died. It's a glorious pop composition and it's a thematic rarity. Music is replete with songs about falling in love and breaking up, but very few tracks about the complex emotional dissolve just prior to a break-up. It's a beautiful, sad, genuine song belied by its up-tempo and guitar licks that obliquely reference the saccharine tones of doo-wop.

• New Dawn Fades
• Shadowplay
• The Only Mistake

Factory also released a quasi-compilation in 1981 called Still that consisted mostly of Joy Division's late-period performance at Birmingham University. The recording is shoddy at best, but it's worth a listen anyway if only for the rare tracks like "The Only Mistake" as well as the one and only recording of Joy Division performing "Ceremony", itself one of the best songs New Order ever recorded.

• Wilderness
• Digital

I'm ending with this track because it was the last song Joy Division ever performed live. Also, it's an awesome little track that simultaneously exhibits the band's talent and Ian Curtis's degenerating state of mind. It'd be a radio-ready hit if it weren't for the dark subject matter.

Joy Division's few recordings are dense with great songs and they definitely didn't sound finished when they met their demise and reformation as New Order. We can't call New Order a proper continuation of Joy Division, but at least they managed to bring a few JD songs into the studio before they progressed to a very different sound.