History Music / SubstanceJoyDivisionAlbum

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: The album cover's layout, consisting of the band name, a timeframe, and the album title in plain text atop a solid-color background, acts as a follow-up to the cover for Music/NewOrder's earlier ''Music/{{Substance|NewOrderAlbum}}'' compilation.

''Substance'' is the second compilation album by Music/JoyDivision, released in 1988. Riding off of the success of Music/NewOrder[='s=] [[Music/SubstanceNewOrderAlbum identically-named compilation]] from the previous year, the album similarly compiles every studio-recorded single, BSide, and EP track released by New Order's previous incarnation during their own lifetime (do note the "studio-recorded" part; tracks only available as live performances like "A Later Date" aren't featured). Two tracks, "Dead Souls" and "Glass", had been previously released on the 1981 ''Still'' compilation.

* RearrangeTheSong: The album features the 12" version of "She's Lost Control" from ''Music/UnknownPleasures''; this version is an archival re-recording that incorporates greater use of synthesizers and an electronic drum kit, is performed at a lower tempo and key, and features an additional bridge not present on the ''Unknown Pleasures'' version.

* CoverVersion: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" has become something of a standard and thus has attracted a number of cover versions in many different genres. It's been covered by Paul Young and folk singer June Tabor, among others.

* AlternateAlbumCover: The cover art was reworked for European editions in 1990 to use a zoom-in on the New Alphabet "s", with the epitaph placed inside the lower curve of the letter on CD releases and above it on cassette ones.

** In 1990, the cover art for ''Substance'' was reworked on the European editions, as mentioned under MinimalisticCoverArt above. Additionally, the commercially-released 12" mix of "She's Lost Control" was replaced with an alternate take incorporating different versions of the synthesizer and guitar parts and a longer outro.

** Musically, "Autosuggestion" seems heavily musically influenced by Music/TheStooges' [[Music/FunHouse "Dirt"]].

** The spoken interlude in "No Love Lost" is a direct quote from the book that inspired Joy Division's name, ''The House of Dolls''.
--->"Through the wire screen, the eyes of those standing outside looked in at her as into the cage of some rare creature in a zoo. In the hand of one of the assistants she saw the same instrument which they had that morning inserted deep into her body. She shuddered instinctively."

* BrokenPedestal: "Autosuggestion":

* CoverVersion: "Dead Souls" would later receive a popular cover by Music/NineInchNails for the soundtrack to ''Film/TheCrow''. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" has also been covered frequently, with versions by Paul Young and folk singer June Tabor, among others.

* RearrangeTheSong: The album features the 12" version of "She's Lost Control" from ''Music/UnknownPleasures''; this version is an archival re-recording that incorporates greater use of synthesizers and an electronic drum kit, is performed at a lower tempo and key, and features an additional verse not present on the ''Unknown Pleasures'' version.

* VocalEvolution: Ian's voice lowers dramatically on "Digital", the first track that was done with Martin Hannett, compared to the first two tracks of the album taken from ''An Ideal for Living'', in which his singing voice is closer to his speaking voice. Likewise, the B-side portion of the compilation features Ian's voice lowering again on "Glass", the first B-side recorded with Hannett, compared to the previous two tracks, which make up the other half of ''An Ideal for Living''.

Like the New Order album, ''Substance'' features much more songs on CD than LP, though unlike the New Order album, the album occupies just one disc on CD (with some countries having double-play cassette releases including the B-side portion) on all formats and doesn't edit down any of the tracks included; cassette releases use either the LP or CD tracklist depending on when and by whom they were issued. The release shows how much of an afterthought that record companies were treating LP releases in the late 1980s. The full album wouldn't be officially released on LP until 2015, when Rhino prepared a double-LP version of ''Substance'' alongside a CD and digital release (with two extra tracks on all three formats to boot). For [[DiedDuringProduction obvious reasons]], there were no re-recordings of any songs, either. Well, no ''new'' ones; the version of "She's Lost Control" featured on ''Substance'' was indeed a re-recording, but was made long before Ian Curtis's suicide in 1980.

Like the New Order album, ''Substance'' features much more songs on CD than LP, though unlike the New Order album, the album occupies just one disc on CD (with some countries having double-play cassette releases including the B-side portion) on all formats and doesn't edit down any of the tracks included; cassette releases use either the LP or CD tracklist depending on when and by whom they were issued. The release shows how much of an afterthought that record companies were treating LP releases in the late 1980s. The full album wouldn't be officially released on LP until 2015, when Rhino prepared a double-LP version of ''Substance'' alongside a CD and digital release (with two extra tracks on all three formats to boot). For [[AuthorExistenceFailure obvious reasons]], there were no re-recordings of any songs, either. Well, no ''new'' ones; the version of "She's Lost Control" featured on ''Substance'' was indeed a re-recording, but was made long before Ian Curtis's suicide in 1980.

Similarly to how New Order's ''Substance'' acts as a retrospective of their artistic evolution, Joy Division's ''Substance'' offers a look into their own evolution from just another PunkRock band to ''the'' defining band of the British PostPunk movement, examining both their rockist side and the electronic side that would act as a precursor to New Order. The result was the band's only Billboard album chart entry, peaking at 146 on the Top 200 on the heels of New Order's American breakthrough the previous year. New Order's success seemed to revive interest in their previous incarnation, already critical darlings on both sides of the Atlantic. This minor success prompted New Order's U.S. label, the Creator/WarnerBrosRecords-backed Qwest Records, to reissue the rest of Joy Division's back catalog. [=AllMusic=] lists the compilation as an "album pick", meaning that the site's editors feel the album is the most representative of Joy Division's output as a whole.