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Before I begin, I would like to apologise for the fact that Quickie Divorce’s regular ‘Divorce in the Arts’ feature is a bit late this month, but the much maligned Family Law Review, which was published last Thursday, clearly needed to be discussed. Anyway, the subject of this month’s article holds a special place in my heart: Joy Division’s classic ode to marital disharmony, Love Will Tear Us Apart. I first heard this song when I was 14 years old and whilst I would not appreciate the tale of failed marriage and divorce communicated within it for several years, its soaring riffs and mesmerising vocals made an instant impression. I was too young to fully appreciate the narrative present within the song’s lyrics, but the track’s components – Ian Curtis’s vocal, in particular – left me in no doubt that what was being recounted was a tale of pain and despair, the song’s title confirming that these negative emotions were linked to love in some way whether it be lost, unrequited or absent. In my later years, I learned that this song had been written by a man caught in the midst of marital disharmony; an individual waiting for his then wife to commence divorce proceedings, though still in love with her and hoping, desperately, for reconciliation. Curtis’s lyrics paint a picture of desolation, of a couple that simply can no longer communicate, that lie next to each other in complete silence. Of a couple that resides together in what was once a happy home that is now tarnished by the frosty atmosphere bred by their mutual disdain for one another. In spite of this, though, the song also spoke of a desire to resolve these issues and return to wedded bliss, expressing the sort of diverse emotions that anyone that has ever been in a romantic relationship can relate to. Love Will Tear Us Apart is without a shadow of a doubt one of the greatest songs ever written. It is a song that somehow manages to recount a tale of the absolute despair that divorce brings whilst backed by sumptuous melody. It, put simply, deserves pride of place in any record collection.