Stuck In My Head: Love Will Tear Us Apart

‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ inhabits the spot where love hits the wall and explodes into a supernova of bitterness and regret. The song ticks off a litany of ills that could break any bond, voiced with ample dread and paranoia by the late Ian Curtis. This is the sound of a relationship spiraling down the drain, and Curtis plays the part of the spurned lover with Shakespearean aplomb:

Why is the bedroom so cold
Turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed,
Our respect run so dry?
Yet there’s still this appeal
That we’ve kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again

Curtis was just 23 when he hanged himself in May of 1980, but he squeezed several lifetimes worth of love’s agonies into this one song alone. Amazingly, he wrote ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ in response to Captain & Tennille’s sappy pop hit ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’, which lived in a different musical universe from Joy Division:

When those girls start hanging around talking me down
Hear with your heart and you won’t hear a sound
Just Stop, ’cause I really love you
Stop, I’ll be thinkin’ of you
Look in my heart and let love
Keep us together, whatever

‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ is dark, but like Captain & Tennille’s hit, it’s a perfectly executed piece of pop music. The song begins with a strummed guitar that finds its riff and then joins in with a driving rhythm section that wouldn’t be out of place on a Kraftwerk or Neu! album. The backbeat here has HIT SONG written all over it, and Curtis delivers perhaps the most inspired lyrics of his too brief career. Like most Factory Records product, this session was helmed by Martin Hannett, whose methodical – if not downright eccentric – production tactics with the group were recounted in the film 24 Hour Party People. Hannett worked Joy Division like dogs (particularly drummer Stephen Morris) to get the sound that he envisioned for them, and it’s on full display on ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. Love’s dying gasps never sounded so good…

Listen: Love Will Tear Us Apart

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Tags: 24 Hour Party People, Captain & Tennille, Ian Curtis, Joy Division, Kraftwerk, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Martin Hannett, Neu!, Stephen Morris