In the shadows

In a review for the LA Times, Henry Rollins is full of praise for Jon Savage's new oral history of Joy Division, This Searing Light, The Sun And Everything Else. Ultimately, however, he argues that while it gives a good sense of where the music came from, it does little to illuminate the music itself, which "still lurks deep in phenomenon and shadow".

Nevertheless, despite acknowledging the difficulty of "capturing its essence" in words, Rollins has a valiant stab himself: "Joy Division's music doesn't 'rock' in the classic sense as much as shudder, roar and convulse. The songs are readings of temperature, light and lack of light. They walk silently for hours on city streets and return alone to small rooms with full ashtrays and no messages on the machine."