Unknown Pleasures

Unknown Pleasures is the debut studio album by the English rock band Joy Division. It was released in June 1979 through Factory Records. The album was recorded and mixed over three successive weekends at Stockport's Strawberry Studios in April 1979, with producer Martin Hannett contributing a number of unconventional recording techniques to the group's sound. The cover artwork was designed by artist Peter Saville, using a data plot of signals from a radio pulsar. It is the only Joy Division album released during lead singer Ian Curtis's lifetime. Factory Records did not release any singles from Unknown Pleasures. In January 1980 the album placed at No. 2 on the first publication of the Indie Albums Chart. It reached No. 71 on the Albums Chart when reissued in July 1980 just after the release of the subsequent album Closer, eventually reaching No. 5 in 2019 upon a later reissue. It has since received sustained critical acclaim as an influential post-punk album, and has been named as one of the best albums of all time by publications such as NME, AllMusic, Select, Rolling Stone, and Spin.