Unknown Pleasures
by Joy Division
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Joy Division bestography
Unknown Pleasures is ranked as the best album by Joy Division.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Unknown Pleasures on YouTube
Unknown Pleasures track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 87 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
Unknown Pleasures rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 2 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 24/100 | 77 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | All Time Pt 3 | 59/100 | - |
| 2026 |  baystateoftheart | Top 98 Music Albums of the 1970s | 33/98 | 13 |
| 2026 | Olli | Top 100 Music Albums of 1979 | 3/100 | 5 |
| 2026 | fabm0 | 1 My Chart All Time 2 | 36/100 | - |
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 90 Music Albums of 1979 | 2/90 | 5 |
| 2026 |  covecove | Top 50 Music Albums of 1979 | 3/50 | 5 |
| 2026 |  slatsheit | Top 59 Music Albums of 1979 | 1/59 | 5 |
| 2026 | Cheboygan74 | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1970s | 7/100 | 19 |
| 2026 | Foxforce5 | Top 24 Music Albums of 1979 | 21/24 | 1 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 2,002 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 20,499 | |||
Unknown Pleasures collection
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Unknown Pleasures ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 2,358 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 09/02/2026 17:50 | davidb | 40 | 72/100 |
| ! | 08/28/2026 03:20 | Melway94 | 118 | 83/100 |
| ! | 08/13/2026 11:17 | TitoVampir | 197 | 76/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 1% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 86.3/100, a mean average of 85.0/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 86.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.0.
Unknown Pleasures favourites
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Forum mentions
neilgee 4 days ago in What album are you listening to? (cont.)
BestEverAlbums 09/06/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5427): By StreakyNuno BestEverAlbums 09/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5423): By serpicoUnknown Pleasures comments
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I remember hearing this one for the first time coming back at night from a karting race. A new world was opening up! (Edited)
My knowledge of Joy Division is limited to the movie Control, and hearing Love Will Tear Us Apart on the radio. It turns out, every album I love owes a bunch to this.
Great vibes, great writing, a precursor to modern punk, it's stupid it took me this long. (Edited)
Ian Curtis (1956 - 1980), the musician, lead singer and lyricist of post-punk Joy Division is the mind and voice of this, the band's, debut album.
The music is of a high quality and the message in the lyrics are well-stated and apparently sincere. Not to appreciate the album's importance, so close to its mentor´s passing, would therefore be callous and insensitive.
Despite its unquestionable excellence, however, not being a record of my particular favourite genres, I won't be going out to buy it. Not right now, anyway. (Edited)
I've been listening to this album for the last 40 years now from a young boy to a middle-aged dad and it has never lost it's impact in all these years. What would Ian think I don't know? He'd probably frown and crack open another can.
This is simply the greatest album ever produced in my opinion from one of the best environments for music- Manchester, Factory records, Tony Wilson and finally the genius that was Martin Hannett who was largely responsible for much of the 'sound' of Joy Division. (Edited)
Relate way too much to the "sound" of this album if that makes sense (Edited)
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