Like the nebulous sports award "Most Valuable Player," the "Best of" compilation has no clear standards. Should it represent a group's career? If so, The Best of Joy Division falls short, offering nothing from the band's early demos (as Warsaw) or their debut EP, An Ideal For Living. Should it consist of the most popular songs? On that count, this collection succeeds, but that's nebulous too, since Joy Division only released two full-length albums and six singles. Should it simply be unique? That's where this collection really falters: nearly half of its 14 tracks come from the recently-reissued Unknown Pleasures and Closer, and most of the rest are on the more purposeful singles compilation Substance.
In fact, the bigger puzzle is why Rhino chose to release this instead of an expanded version of Substance (or at least replicate the British Best of, which included a second disc of Peel Sessions and an Ian Curtis interview). Maybe it's a rights issue, or maybe the label assumes that the recent biopic Control created new fans interested enough to lay out some cash but oddly unwilling to buy both Joy Division albums. It would be wrong to complain about anyone owning even a small amount of this band's great music, but the idea of being satisfied by a Whitman's sampler is strange.
Still, The Best of Joy Division is by Joy Division, so it's good. It's hard to imagine how any such collection wouldn't be-- just shuffle the four-disc set Heart and Soul, make an album of the first 14 tracks that come up, and you'd have a winner. The essentials-- "Transmission", "She's Lost Control", "Atmosphere", "Love Will Tear Us Apart"-- nestle well against album cuts, and there are nice juxtapositions, like the way "Heart and Soul"'s throb kickstarts the post-punk-in-a-nutshell "Incubation", which morphs into "Isolation"'s dubby pulse. One could quibble about omissions-- "A Means to An End" from Closer, "Day of the Lords" from Unknown Pleasures-- but every song on The Best of Joy Division is great.
Regardless, there's that unmistakable air of non-necessity to this collection. It's clearly for the timidly uninitiated, and sure, it's better for anyone to hear 14 random Joy Division songs than none. But if you have any interest in this remarkable band, save the startup cash and buy Unknown Pleasures and Closer first, then Substance, then Heart and Soul. It's not a lot to invest in a group whose accomplishments continue to pay off 28 years after its demise.
