Disorder

Disorder opens Unknown Pleasures. Curtis wrote the lyrics, and the music came out of long jamming sessions in rehearsal. The band had played it live several times before recording it in early April 1979 at Strawberry Studios, where it was the first track put down for the album. Hannett produced and engineered.

Its start is an echo-laden tom-tom pattern, and Hannett widely panned the drums to open up the space. Hook says the recorded version contains bum notes where he missed higher notes on the A and D strings, and that he cannot imagine the song without them. Live, Morris later used a Synare 3 to play a siren-like intro. Hook regretted in 2013 that Disorder was not released as a single. Ben Hewitt began The Guardian's 2015 ten of the best Joy Division songs with it.

Xiu Xiu and Deerhoof recorded it together in 2010, and Bedhead covered it. The 1975 interpolated its melody in Give Yourself a Try in 2018.