Joy Division's Best Best-Of Album

permanent was the first record i bought of joy division so i have fond memories of it

Substance.

Like it's New Order counterpart, it served the purpose of compiling non-album tracks. It's a complement to their albums because it doesn't cannibalize them.

It's said New Order's Substance came about because Tony Wilson wanted a collection of singles to play in his car's new CD player. This is product put together from a fan's perspective. It also was good from a business standpoint because it didn't make the band's catalogue obsolete by cherrypicking the best tracks from the other albums.

London do things differently (see Permanent, Best of, Retro, International). The Rest of New Order was well intentioned but the track selection could have been much better.

Substance.

It's not really a "best of" though, which is probably where Permanent falls down - no best of is ever gonna satisfy everyone, and the omission of New Dawn Fades and Decades makes a mockery of it's claims to be a best of.

OK, they're not on Substance either, but that never pretended to be a best of.

Neither of them do it for me. They just don't seem complete in any regards. Part of the problem is doubtless the fact that there are so few songs on each. A 2-disc Best of JD would be much more complete, especially if it went chronologically from early classics like Warsaw (the song), through Unknown Pleasures, picked up the singles, then into the dirges of Closer, then finished with LWTUA. Considering that 90% of the studio tracks released by the band can fit within the span of 160 min., a 2-disc set would've been ideal.

I wasn't swayed to buy Permanent for myself (did pick it up as a Christmas gift for my brother; I knew that he needed some Joy Division in his life), so I'll go with Substance.

Just picked up the US vinyl version in Seattle last week, cause I'd bought the CD when it came out as it had more tracks on it. Don't know how often I'll play the album, but I still do play the CD from time to time.

I chose Permanent. Not sure why. I think there are just more songs I REALLY like on Permanent than there are on Substance.