An Ideal for Living by Joy Division

An Ideal for Living, the first record by Joy Division, came out on 3 June 1978 on the band's own Enigma label, only a little while after they'd stopped calling themselves Warsaw. It was cut in Oldham in December 1977 by the Salford band of Ian Curtis on vocals, Bernard Sumner on guitar, Peter Hook on bass and Stephen Morris on drums.

This is Joy Division still wearing their punk boots: fast, rough and a little clumsy, with the guitars slashing and Curtis barking where later he would brood. "Warsaw" charges along like the band is trying to outrun its own name. Yet you can already hear the dark, hollow spaces that were coming. The self-released EP caught the ear of Manchester TV man Tony Wilson, who signed them to Factory Records, and Unknown Pleasures followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.