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Still

Joy Division - Still Audio CD

A fair review of the Joy Division "Still" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Joy Division reviews here, or go back to the Joy Division tabs.

Band: Joy Division
Title: Still
Rating:

Release Date: 2007-10-30
Media: Audio CD

one of a kind
"Still" collects unrealeased material and singles, but its strange "Atmosphere" was left off and "Dead Souls" was included; consitering both songs where on the same single; the legandary "Sordide Sentimental" release "Licht und Blindheit". "Still" was original released in October of 1981, finally making the remnants of Joy Divisions' recorded material available; along with a live show to keep up with the heavy bootlegging that was going on at that time and is still going on today. Ian was so proud of this single, once he expressed that he acomplished everything he wanted to accomplish in Joy Division with the "Unknown Pleasures" album and the "Licht und Blindheit" single. In the end,Ian Curtis gave his copy of "Licht und Blindheit" to Terry Mason, numbered 1106 of the original 1578 numbered copies. Another strange note is,"Digital" was left off but "Glass" was included. Both where on the same compilation album "A Factory Sample". If you have the "Heart and Soul box set", you have all the material besides the version of "Walked in Line" and "Sister Ray", along with the two live shows. This remastered collectors edition has two amazing live shows with great sound quality; 9 to 9+ with a 10 being perfect sound quality. The first being, Live at High Wycombe,Feb 20,1980. This show has 8 songs and as a bonus includes the soundcheck, another 6 songs. Most of the tracks are from "Closer". The last concert,the last time Joy Division ever performed live before Ian took his own life on May 18, 1980. Live at Birmingham University, May 2,1980. After this concert, Joy Division took two weeks off before their scheduled tour in America; a tour they never made. They used this concert to play a new song "Ceremony". Sadly the mic was turned off at the start of the show and the lyrics to "Ceremony" are cut off at the beginning and pick up near the end of the song. But there is a little known fact about "Ceremony". Besides the rehearsal version on "Heart and Soul",which its hard to hear Ian singing, and the live version on "Still", there is a audience recording that is complete. The whole May 2 show is complete along with the soundcheck. Joy Division played two songs in the soundcheck, "Decades" and "Ceremony". A full version of "Ceremony" can be found on the bootleg "Out of The Room" which is an LP, and since "Still' uses the soundboard tape and since New Order came out with the "Ceremony/In a Lonely Place" single Factory never really released a quality version. At the close of the Birmingham University concert while performing and nearing the end of "Decades", Ian stumbled off stage with assistance and returned for the encore "Digital". The last song ever performed by Joy Division. Even if you have the "Heart and Soul box set", which means you have all the singles and unreleaesed material, you still dont have the version of "Walked in Line", the live cover of "Sister Ray", and the two amazing live shows included in this collectors edition. This collectors edition is remastered as-well, the album and both live shows. The remastering was well done, and do the recording justice. I have "Still" and both shows without the remastering; the remastering alone warants the purchase. A must have for any Joy Division fan. "We knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chamber, Pushed to the limit, we dragged ourselves in". Ian Curtis, Decades. .

Joy Division Odds and Ends
D. I hoped that buying this disc would give me some of the early J. music which I heard in the new documentary movie about them. Sadly, this reissue disc slavishly copies all the flaws of the original disc's playlist, rather than trying to fill in the gaps of Joy Division material left out of their two meager studio albums.
For example, I hoped this disc would have the studio version of "Digital". It doesn't. There is a live version from a set that the studio put on "Still" to discourage bootlegging. The worst crime on this disc is the absence of "Love will Tear Us Apart", one of the greatest Joy Division songs, and one of the best post-punk singles ever. It does exist in live versions on these Joy Division reissues.
Also missing is "Atmosphere", one of J. D. 's most evocative tunes. The disc does have "Dead Souls", which was on the flip side of the single with "Atmosphere", and rightly so.
Instead we get a cover of "Sister Ray" which Curtis dismisses as their version of "Louie Louie".
As with the other Joy Division reissues, the other disc is of a live performance. I wouldn't have minded if the live disc were swapped out for one which filled out the additional gaps in the Joy Division repertoire. I know that most of these gaps are filled in the "Heart and Soul" box set, but having purchased both reissues of "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer", I can't see paying more money for the redundant discs in the box set.
So while this disc will not fill out your Joy Division collection, it does offer some nice remastered versions of some of their early stuff, unreleased late stuff, and a Joy Division version of "Ceremony" which later became a New Order single after Ian Curtis' death.
SubstanceIf you already have "Unknown Pleasures" and "Closer" and you want a more complete collection of their early stuff, check out "Substance". Used copies are still available through Amazon sellers. This disc has the studio versions of "Love will Tear Us Apart, Digital, Atmosphere, No Love Lost" and other early tidbits missing from "Still", which are heard in the JoyDiv movie. There is even an alternate version of "She's Lost Control". The sound is quite good though I don't think it was remastered.
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Incredible Music!
So unfortunate the band did not continue with it's original sound. Love ALL that is Joy Division & I've gotten pretty much everything I can get that's available. However, the fact the original band members overcame tragedy, and continued playing together, is surely a testament to their musical talent and personal stamina. I'm checking out New Order now - don't know yet what the verdict will be.

A remaster...... but not really complete
Everything that can be said about this album has been said and to be honest I can't really add anything new. Still, to me still ranks as a great album. The studio tracks are interesting and and the live tracks are of course poorly mixed as usual. They are however better in quality than the original vinyl version of the album so for this cd set the relastering has worked a treat. But there is one MAJOR niggle. . . . . WHERE THE F**K IS 24 HOURS???

When I first bought this album many many moons ago I was really taken back by the fact that they had slipped in an extra track and not credited it on the cover. . . It made the album 'special'. And to my ears the version of 24 hours on Still is a great recording, so why omit it from the CD? I've heard that the running time on the CD wasn't long enough to take the extra track, but in all honesty I would have prefered them to cut out one of the so called bonus tracks to make room for it. . . . and also not credit it on the CD booklet. This CD set is great but I feel short changed by it not being a complete remaster of the ORIGINAL album.

Outstanding album gets outstanding remaster and an extra live disc
I didn't know it at the time, but it's a fairly random collection of studio out-takes from the band's three-year history (the original first vinyl disc) and a live recording of the band's final concert at Birmingham University in May 1980 (the original second vinyl disc). Being the record by which I discovered Joy Division (and possibly because of that fact) it is still my favourite. To further confuse the issue, the original CD release, while almost identical, inexplicably omitted "24 Hours" from the live set altogether (it having been omitted from the track listing of the vinyl only, showing up as a sort of anticipation of the DVD Easter Egg on the actual record). Weird: it was by no means the worst quality track on the set (several others suffered, either from poor mixing (Ceremony), synthesiser meltdown (Isolation and Decades) or guitarist correct-chord meltdown (Bernard misses a doozy in the intro to New Dawn Fades)).

And if that were not random enough, this remaster includes another live set, from High Wycombe Town Hall (yes, that legendary Rock 'n' Roll venue - it's almost Tapular, isn't it) in February 1980 plus some material from the soundcheck!

For all that, the (original) record hangs together coherently - the outtakes pace themselves nicely from the creepy foghorns and droning basslines of Exercise One through the near-punk workouts (Ice Age, Walked in Line) to the desolate, stately majesty of classic tracks like The Only Mistake and Dead Souls which represent high-Mannerist Joy Division, the only jolt being, from nowhere, an unexpected live cover of the Velvets' Sister Ray at the end of (original vinyl) disc two.

I love Still, but the cognoscenti don't seem to. Even the liner notes accompanying this new release describe Still as "above all the expression of weakness in the Joy Division sequence of releases" (what on earth were the marketing guys thinking?), but that's extraordinarily harsh, to the point of being plain old horse-manure. Yes Still may represent an un-chaperoned wander through the band's unreleased catalogue, and sure, there are no radio singles here (but then, nor are there on Unknown Pleasures or Closer: Joy Division *never* released radio singles on studio albums) but there are certainly standout tracks, and as (ahem) a *closer* (noun) - that is, a summation of what Joy Division were about, a precis, plus a snapshot of where they ended up - I can't think of how else one might have done it, without ripping off the fans by recycling material already available.

I have heard people complain bitterly about the quality of the Birmingham live set, but for my money it's a banker in every respect. There's more bottom end than usual in Peter Hook's bass and Steve Morris' drums, Bernard's guitar is rich and full, and Ian Curtis's vocals are superb (when audible - there are a couple of occasions where the mixer has a melting moment and forgets to push the faders up). I've heard several other Joy Division live sets, and the Still set is easily the most assured performance, and the cleanest recording. The crowd is on fire. Added to that is the frisson derived from the fact that this really was THE last time Joy Division ever performed as Joy Division, and Ian Curtis ever performed at all. Great gig to go out on. A historical performance.

The High Wycombe gig - I suppose thrown on to persuade mugs like me to acquire yet another copy of the same record (I now have four) is interesting artefact, but not much more: The band is certainly tight, and the performance sounds a lot closer to - well, Closer - although I found the distant, icy arrangements on that album a little *too* spartan, and the recording quality isn't a patch on the Birmingham gig. Love Will Tear Us Apart is surprisingly faithfully executed - after three years and some 120 gigs, Joy Division had turned themselves into tight musicians - but the crowd's reaction to the songs: polite, but clearly appreciative applause - sounds more like an audience than a moshpit. Perhaps the High Wycombe Mayor was on hand to keep an eye on the Kids, it being the Town Hall and all.

Lastly, credit to Factory, who have maintained the Peter Saville feel of the original album, and which I now own in four versions, including, I'm proud to say, an original pressing vinyl with the Hessian sleeve . . . and the missing Twenty Four Hours!

Olly Buxton.

You can see a complete list of all Joy Division discography, or go back to the Joy Division tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.