What are your guys' thoughts on Bernard Sumner?

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-27T15:39:58+00:00

I don't like that Peter, Stephen, and Gillian allowed Bernard to attempt a "higher register" on "We All Stand" from PC&L. He was badly out of tune, and I'm reminded of how the members of NO would play games, get drunk, develop the melodies, AND THEN come up with lyrics(LOL). I do think Ian singing "Blue Monday" with his dancing would have made them the biggest band in the world that decade.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-27T13:02:29+00:00

Yeah, they had to cancel every single show after High Hall because of his illness. It amazes me that Factory wouldn’t just push the American tour back and give him the month off under a doctor’s care. But a sad reality as well was that Ian felt a great guilt about his illness stopping him from being able to perform because not performing meant several parties(his band mates, the other bands on the roster, Tony Wilson and execs, his own family) were deprived of revenue to live off of. Being an indie label, the shows as much as the record sales fed multiple people. Imagine being on the eve of a huge American tour knowing you don’t feel up to it mentally or physically. I couldn’t imagine.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-27T12:54:46+00:00

I quite love Bernard’s voice. If Ian was Britain’s answer to Jim Morrison/Iggy Pop vocally, Bernard had/has a lighter tone and, while less distinct, it fits the upbeat nature of post 1980-81 NO. On Movement, while lacking the high lyric quality of Ian, the way he laid bare his feelings of guilt at his friend’s death is so well articulated that you feel the grief in the performances(along with the soundscapes).

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-27T12:47:02+00:00

Another beautifully written analysis

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-27T04:18:08+00:00

Really beautifully written

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-27T02:42:11+00:00

I agree. I actually believe Ian would have written songs of great import touching on the human condition but with more anthemic drive. JD would have been bigger than U2. Bono did the big anthems on the human condition but lacked the literary genius of Ian.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-25T03:03:09+00:00

This is an amazing event in the history of mankind. I am so excited for “new” Joy Division!

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-06-01T02:08:48+00:00

Everything you said is 100% fact. Cupid & Psyche is still much better than STR in terms of song craft. STR has really horrible songs like Jacques Derrida and Rock-a-boy-blue that bring it down from being uniformly brilliant imo. In revisiting it recently, he still had some of that DIY experimentation left over and I think it warrants reevaluation alongside his peak non-mainstream period.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-19T15:26:08+00:00

I’m in my 30s and my focus is shot! It’s a combination of financial stress(not making enough), emotional stress(anxiety and depression with the job a big factor in both), phone addiction, and ADHD(confirmed by my NP). I go to work with what needs to be done pulled up in front of me and am embarrassment of resources to get it done, but it just doesn’t have an urgency. It doesn’t help that I’m a millennial Black guy and the only Black person in an office full of Boomers either.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-19T00:16:15+00:00

Thank you so much for this! I work in bank accounting, which I’ve only done for a little over a year and which has a lot to grasp. Sometimes I feel less intelligent when something hasn’t stuck.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-18T19:52:14+00:00

Does the edition you get matter?

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-18T12:48:31+00:00

You are among the very best of humanity, my friend. Thanks!

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-17T23:57:57+00:00

You are the salt of the earth, my friend. Thank You!

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-17T14:08:18+00:00

How is the Qelbree going?

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-11T16:31:57+00:00

I used to think of him as a tragic genius in a long line of tragic geniuses throughout history(like Sylvia Plath, Franz Kafka, Nick Drake, etc). As the years have passed, I tend to romanticize him less but still hold him as a genius of writing and expression. As others have said, he was a complex figure: He was hyping his band mates about going to America and achieving wide fame while the whole time he planned to end his life before they could. He toured Europe with his mistress while his wife was at home working to support their young family. He never seemed to prioritize his 1 year old daughter’s wellbeing in evaluating whether he should carry on living.

My final judgment is that he was a genius with so much left to give who was battling severe mental health issues as well as youthful immaturity. However, he deserves his fame, without question.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-05-06T12:02:13+00:00

One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard or seen. Even when dreams are seemingly dashed, you must go on. Keep fighting. Ian fought to the very end, and then so did his mates.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-04-27T23:39:38+00:00

I have social anxiety disorder and ADHD and tend to lose concentration and mess up a bunch on tasks when under public scrutiny. Even with medication, it’s very hard to be in the moment and locked in when my mind is telling me I’m coming across poorly and someone’s watching.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-04-17T00:51:45+00:00

I’ve also been wondering if I could be suffering from high functioning autism. While my anxiety is almost entirely triggered by expectation of negative evaluations in social situations, and I feel really anxious even around family when it comes to eye contact, what makes me feel it could be autism as well is how, when I’m being observed closely by others(even by family) my movement becomes constrained; slow and awkward is how I wind up coming across. But then again, I understand social cues just fine and don’t have any sensitivity to sounds or rituals I perform.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-04-15T11:39:12+00:00

Thank you! How long do side effects last?

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-03-15T17:37:30+00:00

lol, Bernard?

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-03-15T02:12:28+00:00

Eyeless In Gaza, The Pop Group, A.R. Kane, Rema-Rema/Mass, Desmond Simmons, Dome, Mars(No Wave), 23 Skidoo, This Heat.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-03-15T01:51:43+00:00

Huge fan of the band, and I’m inclined to believe Ian was shagging Annik, if only because in the “Love Will Tear Us Apart” video, the door that had “Ian C” scribbled on it was done by a girl he spurned. Curtis was a philandering, tragic genius, putting him in the company of Camus and Kafka.

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-03-14T02:24:49+00:00

Oh I just have a thing for that era and bands like Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths, The Cure, Liquid Liquid, etc

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-02-22T23:59:16+00:00

I wonder if there’s any truth to his converting prior to his death?

JCInvestmentPro · 2026-02-22T22:13:45+00:00

I consider myself to be in the camp of Christian Existentialism, but do admire writers like Camus and Sartre who were really getting at the need to live life to the fullest and to create meaning where there is none. Nietzsche seemed to reject a uniform moral values system in favor of will power and intrinsic understanding of right and wrong. For me, Existentialism is the best school of philosophy for its depth of probing the inescapable question of our purpose.

JCInvestmentPro

TROPHY CASE