Peter Hook on the most timeless album of his career: “It sounded much more mature than most groups”
Peter Hook is undoubtedly one of the most important figures to emerge from the post-punk and new-wave boom of the late 1970s. He first found fame with Joy Division, who emerged from the suburbs of Salford with a gloomy take on the genre that remains unmatched. After the death of the band’s frontman, Ian Curtis, Hook and his bandmate Bernard Sumner took their sound in a slightly different direction as New Order.
They blanketed guitars in synthesisers, blending the post-punk sound they had spawned from with the burgeoning love for synth-pop. It was much more danceable than their work with Joy Division, but it held that same classic quality. Between the two projects, Hook lent his bass and synth skills to some of the most iconic records of the era, many of which still stand up today.
From the bouncy ‘Blue Monday’ to the twangs of ‘Transmission’, the stylings of Joy Division and New Order continue to find their way onto the airwaves and into the sound of upcoming bands. They may have spawned from the era of Factory Records and the dawn of post-punk, but their appeal extends far beyond that. The songs they created were timeless, a term Hook thought applied to one of his records in particular.
During a conversation with The Talks, Hook reflected on the experience of performing songs he penned in his youth much later on in his life. “The great thing I’ve found is that when we recorded Joy Division, was that it sounded like music that had been made by much older people than us at 21,” he commented, “It sounded much more mature than most groups.”
Hook found that this was particularly true of Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division’s 1979 debut. The album opened with ‘Disorder’, one of the band’s most upbeat tracks and one of their most enduring. From there, the record pushed into darker post-punk stylings in an impressively considered debut. It sounded as if they had already figured out exactly who they were as a band.
The bassist went on to suggest that Unknown Pleasures has a “timeless” quality to it, as well as an ability to cross the decades “easily”. This is a claim that has certainly been proven in the 45 years since it was first released. Unknown Pleasures continues to feature in lists of the greatest albums of all time, it continues to inspire budding musicians, and it still sounds just as good as it did in 1979.
The record also continues to resonate with audiences in a live setting, though this can be a sobering experience for Hook. “We played in Santiago, Chile, last night,” Hook added, “and the audience was mainly 18 to 25. I’m looking at it and thinking, ‘Fuck me, I’m an old bloke!’ (Laughs) This is fucking weird!’ I was expecting it to be filled with old blokes like me.”
Though Hook may have found the experience “fucking weird”, this serves as a further example of the timeless quality of the record. It won over the twenty-something rockers back in 1979, who still adore it today, but their love isn’t reliant on nostalgia. Unknown Pleasures continues to win over the 20-something rockers of 2024 because it truly is timeless. Few other albums have continued to captivate audiences for such a long time.
