Joy Division and New Order Albums in Order: 21 Records, Seven Band Names

The Joy Division and New Order albums in order run to 21 records across 36 years, from Unknown Pleasures in 1979 to Music Complete in 2015. Twelve of those carry the two famous names. The other nine are Electronic, Marion, The Other Two, Bad Lieutenant and Freebass, and leaving them out would break half the connections.

I researched and drew this map myself over several weeks, and the detail that still surprises me is where Phil Cunningham's line begins. It does not begin with New Order. It begins in 1996, on a Marion record, nine years before his first New Order station on this map. You only see that if somebody has plotted every credit as a line and let the lines run where they actually go.

At a glance. This map plots 21 studio albums across seven band identities, from Unknown Pleasures in 1979 to Music Complete in 2015, a span of 36 years. My research sheet holds 76 named credits, 74 of which earn a line, because a mixing or engineering credit with no playing credit does not. Bernard Sumner appears on 16 of the 21 albums, Stephen Morris on 15, Peter Hook on 12, Gillian Gilbert on 10 and Ian Curtis on 2. Researched and designed by Mike Bell at mikebellmaps.com.

All 21 Joy Division and New Order Albums in Order

Most products for these two bands stop at twelve albums. When I built the research sheet, I kept hitting records that clearly belonged on the same network but carried a different name on the sleeve, so I let them in and the count went to 21.

Two Joy Division albums, ten New Order albums, three by Electronic, two each by Marion and The Other Two, and one apiece from Bad Lieutenant and Freebass. Twenty-one stations, one network.

Phil Cunningham Arrives Through Marion, Not New Order

Phil Cunningham appears on six of the 21 albums. His first two are Marion's This World and Body (1996) and The Program (1998), where he plays guitar alongside Jaime Harding on vocals, Tony Grantham on guitar and piano, Nick Gilbert on bass and Murad Mousa on drums.

His first credit on a New Order record here is Waiting for the Sirens' Call in 2005, and he then runs through Bad Lieutenant's Never Cry Another Tear in 2009, Lost Sirens and Music Complete. On the printed sheet, that is a name in six rows. On the map, it is a line that starts on a separate branch and merges into the main route.

Tom Chapman does the same thing from the other direction. He enters on Bad Lieutenant's Never Cry Another Tear in 2009, playing bass on one track, and by Music Complete in 2015 he is a full member. Both of the musicians who filled the gap left by Peter Hook came onto this map through a side project first.

Two Lines Break in the Middle, and Only One Comes Back

Gillian Gilbert's line starts at Movement in 1981 and runs through the New Order records to Get Ready in 2001, taking in both Other Two albums on the way. Then it stops. She is absent from Waiting for the Sirens' Call in 2005 and from Lost Sirens in 2013, and she reappears on Music Complete in 2015. A gap of 14 years, visible as an actual break in the ink.

Peter Hook's line is the other one, and it ends in a way I had to check twice. He plays on 12 of the 21 albums, and his last New Order credit is Lost Sirens in 2013, six years after he left the band in 2007. Those recordings date from the Waiting for the Sirens' Call sessions, so the credit is period-correct even though the release is not.

He is absent from Music Complete. Two years separate those two stations, and the map shows a line simply stopping between them. For a long-term fan, that pair of details is usually the first thing they point at.

Freebass Puts Three Manchester Bass Players on One Station

Freebass released one album, It's a Beautiful Life, in 2010, and it is the strangest junction on this map. Peter Hook plays bass on it. So does Andy Rourke of The Smiths. So does Gary "Mani" Mounfield.

Three bass players from three separate Manchester dynasties, on one record, with Gary Briggs on vocals, Nat Watson on guitar, Paul Kehoe on drums and keyboards and Phil Murphy on programming. Seven lines call there in total. It is the sort of thing that reads as a footnote in a discography and as a genuine intersection on a transit map.

The Map Opens on Four Lines and Closes on Twenty-Four

Unknown Pleasures in 1979 has four credited musicians: Ian Curtis, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris. Closer in 1980 has the same four. That is the whole of Joy Division on this map, and it is the thinnest the network ever gets.

Music Complete in 2015 carries 24 lines, which makes it the busiest station by a wide margin. Thirteen of them are string players from the Manchester Camerata, with Joe Duddell arranging and conducting, and four more are guests: Iggy Pop on one track, Brandon Flowers on another, La Roux across three, and Giacomo Cavagna delivering a spoken Italian vocal.

Get Ready in 2001 sits between the two extremes on ten. When I am researching a catalogue, that curve is the thing a tube map can draw and a numbered list cannot: four people in a Salford rehearsal room in 1979, an orchestra section in 2015.

Dawn Zee is the quiet one to look for. She sings backing vocals on Get Ready and again on Music Complete, fourteen years apart, and on nothing in between.

The Names That Turn Up Once

Branch lines on my maps are the one-off contributors, the musicians credited on a single record. This map has a lot of them, and several are names you would not predict from the sleeve.

A few names cross between branches rather than appearing once. Johnny Marr runs the full length of Electronic, playing on all three albums. Donald Johnson appears on Electronic's first record in 1991 and again on Raise the Pressure in 1996, with Jez Kerr turning up on The Other Two's The Other Two & You in 1993. Ged Lynch is the odd one out, crossing from Electronic to Marion and back between 1996 and 1999.

Two Men Worked on Super Highways, and Only One Earned a Line

I get asked why certain famous producers are missing from my maps, and The Other Two's Super Highways (1999) is the clearest answer I have ever found in a research sheet.

Tim Oliver produced every track on that record. He is also credited on bass, additional keyboards and additional programming, so he plays, and he gets a line. Ash Howes mixed the same album and has no playing credit, so he does not. Same record, two studio names, opposite outcomes.

That is my rule in one album: a producer only becomes a line if the sleeve also credits them playing something. It keeps the map honest, and it is the reason the density you are looking at is musicians rather than everyone who was in the building. Every credit here came off liner notes and session records rather than an algorithm, which is also why it took the time it did.

Joy Division and New Order Discography Map

Twenty-one albums, seven band names and 74 musician lines, hand-researched and drawn as a single transit network.

Explore This Art Print

Choosing a Size, and Which One Works Best as a Gift

The A2 at 594 x 420 mm (23 x 16 in) is the sensible first choice. Every station is legible, and the run of albums reads clearly from a couple of feet away; it starts at £42.00.

The A1 at 841 x 594 mm (33 x 23 in) is the one I would pick for a serious collector or a milestone birthday. At that size you can read the individual track annotations on Music Complete, including the Manchester Camerata string section, and follow Gillian Gilbert's break without leaning in.

Both sizes come unframed for someone who likes choosing their own frame, or ready to hang in a black wood frame. Everything is printed as a Giclée on 230gsm premium fine art paper, textured matte, archival and acid-free. Full details are on the print and frame specification page.

Questions I Get Asked About This Map

How many Joy Division and New Order albums are there in total?

Two Joy Division studio albums and ten New Order studio albums, twelve between them. This map plots 21 by adding the nine side-project records that share the same musicians, because that is where most of the connections live.

Does the map cover Electronic, Marion and the other side projects?

All of them. Electronic, The Other Two, Marion, Bad Lieutenant and Freebass all appear as stations, which is what takes the album count to 21 rather than 12.

How far does Ian Curtis's line run?

Two stations. He is credited on Unknown Pleasures and Closer, with guitar and melodica on individual tracks on the latter, and the line terminates there in 1980.

Is Peter Hook on the last album?

No. His final credit on the map is Lost Sirens in 2013, drawn from earlier sessions, and he is absent from Music Complete in 2015.

What is not on the map?

Live albums, compilations and singles collections are all excluded, so Substance and Still have no station. Their musicians are already plotted on the studio records the tracks came from, and adding a compilation would draw the same people twice for the same work. Engineers and mixers with no playing credit are left off too.

Is there a New Order map without the Joy Division line?

Yes. The standalone New Order map covers the ten New Order studio albums on their own, which suits somebody who came to the band through the singles rather than through Unknown Pleasures.

Are the roles shown track by track?

Not on this one. Track-level roles currently appear only on my Rolling Stones Goats Head Soup album map. Here the lines show which musicians played on which albums.

Related Music Maps

Given how many of these names cross over, three maps pair naturally with this one. Johnny Marr's presence across all three Electronic albums makes the Johnny Marr map the obvious companion, and Andy Rourke's Freebass credit makes the Smiths discography map the second. For the wider city, the Fall map and the Charlatans map both sit in the same scene.

You can see everything from the city in one place in the Manchester bands collection, or browse the full range in the music art print collection. If you want the version with all 21 stations on it, the Joy Division and New Order discography map is the one, in A2 or A1, unframed or in a black wood frame, from £42.00. If you are buying for somebody and are not sure which map they would want, an art print gift card lets them choose.