Soundtrack of Your Life: Suicide Is Painless

An occasional feature in which we mark the songs of our relative youth as played over public muzak systems and beyond. 

Date: 11 January 2017

Place: Smith's grocery store, cat food aisle

Song:  "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

Artist: Joy Division

Irony Matrix: 6.7 out of 10

Comment: There's that jangly opening, which often makes me pause -- the Cure? No, Joy Division. Ian Curtis agonizing through a melody that could have provided the B side to the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" theme. Crooned by Perry Como. But there are the eerie dawn-of-the-'80s keyboards. And the pervasive sense of dread that has enshrouded the band's entombed music and videos ever since Curtis hanged himself on the eve of the band's debut tour of America (apparently after spending the evening watching Werner Herzog's "Stroszek"). The dreary details were dramatized in 2007's "Control," the debut motion picture by Anton Corbijn ("The American"). None of that really came flooding back to me consciously, but I noted the absurdity of standing in the store aisle and recognizing that metaphysical teenage dread which floods the zone whenever Joy Division emanates from a speaker. Marketers make sure that it will follow me wherever I go throughout my life, for as long as I consume. Is there no escape? Is my life empty or meaningless on a Wednesday night? Am I just stuffing the void with packaged goods? Should I re-evaluate the choices I've made over the years? 

I went with the Purina Naturals, the big bag. It keeps.

Let's add a bonus track, "Atmosphere":

And one of my favorite guitar drones, "Shadowplay":



Und ... the "Stroszek" trailer: