Song · Joy Division
“New Dawn Fades” by Joy Division
From the album Unknown Pleasures (1979)
“New Dawn Fades” by Joy Division appears on 4 radio countdowns from 1 station between 1980 and 2000. It was first released in 1979 on the album Unknown Pleasures. Its best result is #4 on the John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1982). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #2,516 alternative song of all time.
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"New Dawn Fades" closes the first side of Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division's 1979 debut on Factory, and it doesn't so much end the side as bury it. It starts with a sound running backwards, a mangled scrap of the album's own "Insight", most likely a trick Martin Hannett added after the fact. Then Bernard Sumner's guitar climbs while Peter Hook's bass walks down to meet it, the two pulling in opposite directions over Stephen Morris's drums.
The chords never change; the pressure does. Ian Curtis sings his own words with mounting desperation until the whole thing peaks and breaks into a guitar solo, and it's one of the rare Joy Division tracks where two guitars, one distorted and one clean, share the room. Hannett produced, Chris Nagle engineered, and the gloom is total.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 20 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1980) | 50 |
| 1981 | 5 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1981) | 50 |
| 1982 | 4 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1982) | 50 |
| 2000 | 15 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (2000) | 50 |
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