Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.107) - Ranked #24 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records" - "...Punk on the edge of goth, with echoes of disco and the Doors..." Spin - Included in Spin's list of the Top Ten College Cult Classics. Spin (5/01, p.109) - Ranked #11 in Spin's "50 Most Essential Punk Records" - "...A rolling murk of wrist-slash guitars, meat-locker ambience, death-disco beats, and funereal siren-songing. Goth starts here." Q (p.113) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[S]imply ferocious....'Shadowplay' ramps up the guitars to Hannett-defying levels and 'Transmission' could have an eye out." Q (6/00, p.78) - Ranked #19 in Q's "100 Greatest British Albums" Q (9/93, p.97) - 5 Stars - Indispensible - "...UNKNOWN PLEASURES [is] so fully realized, it [doesn't] sound like the debut from four Manchester oiks [Joy Division]....Exhausting listening, but never inaccessible..." Magnet (p.112) - "Joy Division - like the Velvet Underground before it - now boasts an ever-widening sphere of musical influence, far greater in depth than it ever had in its short lifespan." The Wire (p.68) - "UNKNOWN PLEASURES derives much of its musical force from a classical configuration of tensions..." Mojo (Publisher) (3/03, p.76) - Ranked #26 in Mojo's "Top 50 Punk Albums". Mojo (Publisher) (9/01, p.86) - "...Retained the nervy, paranoid energy of punk but...ended up some place entirely 'other'..." NME (Magazine) (8/12/00, p.28) - Ranked #10 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums". NME (Magazine) (9/11/93, p.18) - Ranked #4 in NME's list of The Greatest Albums Of The '70s - "...Ian Curtis made epilepsy momentarily hip with the funereal brooding of 'Atmosphere' and panicky congestion of 'She's Lost Control.' Let's party!..." NME (Magazine) (7/3/93, p.36) - 10 - Classic - "...Thirteen years on and UNKNOWN PLEASURES is still not so much a record as a full-scale nuclear winter...." NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #43 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.' Blender (Magazine) (p.157) - 4.5 stars out of 5 -- "[I]ntense, somber....[The album] inverts punk's unified roar into distant alienation..."