''An Ideal for Living'' is the first EP by the English

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

band

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after atte ...

. It was released in 1978 by the band's own label, Enigma, shortly after the group changed its name from Warsaw.

Background

All tracks were recorded at Pennine Sound Studios in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

on 14 December 1977. The recording sessions were self-financed by the band, on a budget of £400. The release reflects the band's early punk influences, as opposed to the

style they later developed. In an interview with '' Uncut'' magazine in 2001, drummer Stephen Morris stated that when making the EP, the band requested the engineer make the drums sound like " Speed of Life", the opening track on

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's 1977 album '' Low''. "Strangely enough he couldn't". ''Low'' featured a unique drum sound that became widely imitated following its release, although producer

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

refused to explain how he made it for many years.

Record cover

The cover has a black-and-white picture of a blond

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

member beating a drum, which was drawn by guitarist

Bernard Sumner Bernard Sumner (born 4 January 1956) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is a founding member of the bands Joy Division, New Order, and Electronic. Sumner was an early force in several areas, including the po ...

(called "Bernard Albrecht" on the poster sleeve) and the words "Joy! Division" printed in a

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norwe ...

font. The cover design, coupled with the nature of the band's name, fuelled controversy over whether the band had

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

sympathies. When the EP was re-released on

12-inch vinyl The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfa ...

, the original cover was replaced by artwork featuring

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Release and reception

A 7" version of ''An Ideal for Living'' was released in June on the band's own Enigma label, which was sold out by September and was subsequently followed by a 12" version on 10 October on the band's own Anonymous Records label. All four tracks were re-released on the 1988 singles compilation, '' Substance''. A remastered version of the EP was reissued by

Rhino Entertainment Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. History Founded in 1978, Rhino was originall ...

to coincide with

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

2014.

Legacy

In a retrospective review, David Cleary of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

wrote that " hesound quality and production values on this release are extremely primitive", while describing the release as "a mildly interesting, if not great EP". He also noted that with the re-release of "Warsaw" and "Leaders of Men" on the rarities album '' Substance'' (the other two were originally only included on CD and cassette versions of the album), the need for diehard Joy Division fans to obtain this EP had notably decreased.

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...

described the EP as "skillful but rather unexceptional" and noted the strong influence of Bowie's music on the band. The EP subsequently inspired the

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh Rock music, rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (musician ...

' single " A Design for Life".

Track listing

All songs written by Joy Division. # "

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

" – 2:26 # "No Love Lost" – 3:42 # "Leaders of Men" – 2:34 # "Failures" – 3:44

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ideal for Living, An Joy Division EPs 1978 debut EPs Enigma Records EPs Race-related controversies in music