Customer Reviews

Still

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Still is one of those records which is like a pack of cigarettes - you'll only ever try it for the first time in your teens, and you won't like it much at first, but there's something about it which will make you persevere. And one day (still in your teens, most likely) you'll stand back and think, 'by George, this is one holy record!'. More to the point, you'll think Joy Division were one holy band, which they were. (I should point out to any happyclappers who may be reading, that this is holy only to the gods of Rock 'N' Roll - Cat Stevens this is NOT). While it is an odd patchwork of out-takes, b-sides and live material, Still gives a better view of what Joy Division were than either of their studio albums (though their singles, notably, which never appeared on albums, were generally far better recorded and available on CD). I bought Still (as a teenager, of course) before I bought the others, so perhaps it conditioned me, but I still like it the most. The first half (originally one LP of a double album) is largely out-takes; some, like 'Exercise One' and 'Walked in Line' are close relatives to the three minute punk rock song to which the band grew up, although the subject matter (when you can decipher it) is always more cerebral than anything the Pistols or the Stranglers ever mustered. The fact that Curtis's vocals are so often buried adds to the band's mystique - there are no lyric sheets, his voice sounds portentous, and the lyrics you can make out are pretty good, so you figure the rest must be worth perservering with. The second half is a live recording of band's last outing, at Birmingham University, before Curtis' sad suicide. The band has a terrific live sound; you realise here how essential Peter Hook's bass was to the Joy Division sound. Hook provides the melody, underpinned by Steve Morris' drums, while Bernard Sumner's guitar really only adds stinging and swirling textures. This wasn't the way the punk bands (or any other rock 'n' roll band for that matter) ever worked. Curtis' vocals live are much stronger and more audible(except in ceremony where the clot on the mixing desk forgot to push up the faders until half way into the song!) than on the albums and the band sounds more cohesive than it ever did in the studio (despite a couple of howler errors - Sumner missing completely a critical chord in 'New Dawn Fades'). Joy Division really made me wonder. How a bunch of school leavers from Macclesfield could come up with music which sounded so different to anything else, and so important, is something I've never quite understood. To cap it off the mystique there's the inscrutabe cover. No band photos, no names, just the product. Naysayers will complain that Joy Division were a humourless and moribund lot, but that misses the point. This is beautiful, haunted music. If you want fun, buy a Spice Girls CD. For a journey into the Heart of Darkness, 'Still' is as good a place as any to buy your ticket.

On many levels I would say that "Still" is the best Joy Division Album available. I know you purists out there will derride me for this but eventhough it is a hack job of unreleased tracks and a less than perfectly recorded concert it provides a deeper glimpse into the band their styles and and their work at large than any other JD album. I highly recommend this album as the FIRST JD album a person should choose. I want to break my commentary into two parts each part of the album, the unreleased tracks and the live concert recording, are essentially different albums on one CD.

The unreleased tracks which make up of the first half of the album are all for the most part great songs and while I have hear the argument that they don't flow together well, I have never been able to notice that. In fact I would argue the exact opposite. In comparison to Substance (the other Hack-job album) and Unkown Pleaseures. The first half of the album flows nicely. Ice Age, Sound of Music and Walked in a line inthemselves are great enough songs to be the marquis tracks of an album inthemselves. I surmise that it was Ian Curtis's suicide that caused these tracks to never get release on a studio album. The other tracks on this half of the album are equally good. Exercise one makes a great opening track with its long building intro and Glass somewhat of a filler song is a great follower to Ice Age.

The second half is a great live album but this is the part that took much mor time to get into. I have quite a few JB bootlegs and they are all ok. In fact while the recording is perfect this is one of the cleanest live recording you can get these days. However, the transition from studo to live tracks, bothered me first. In the several hundred times I have listend to this album I have gotten over it. The versions of Warsaw and New Dawn Fades are aruably better than the studio versions and hearing JD play The Velvet Underground's Sister Ray is really fun. They do a good job with it. Overall this half of the album is Great too... It just might take the modern youth of the world, who are so used to hearing perfect recordings, a little time to get into.

Overall, this is a great album and it is in my top 20 of all time. If you are a JD Fan and you don't own it I implore you to make the purchase now. If you are not yet exposed to JD or just getting familiar with them get this album. It will help you appreciate why they were such a great and inspiring band.

I hope you like it too!

-- Ted Murena

This album was released after Ian Curtis died in 1980. The album consists of tracks left over there were never released on any of their albums at the time (until heart and soul was released). This album is split in two parts the first 9 tracks make up the stidio outtakes and tracks 10-20 were all live and are not available elsewhere at least not to my knowledge. I quite liked the cover of Velvet Underground's Sister Ray and at the end Ian declares "you should hear are version of Louie Louie". This contains what I think is the only known live recording of Ceremony performed by Joy Division before they became New Order and recorded the song. This is just my own opinion but I still think that this is "STILL" essential to purchase and the live tracks are worth the price alone.

If you already have everything else by Joy Division, chances are you will LOVE this album. If you're looking at buying your first album of the band, perhaps go for either Closer, Unknown Pleasures or one of the compilations first. This is a harsher listen than those mentioned above, but isn't necessarily harsh to the point of being unlistenable.

This is essential for the first three songs, Dead Souls, and parts of the live performance- the last show the band ever played before Curtis' tragic suicide. However it does have its drawbacks: Transmission COULD be better- I know Joy Division were renowned for an 'ugly' sound, but this version of the song is paper thin, as if the bass had been recorded unplugged and the percussion were being tapped out on a school textbook. Also, to make you ears hate you for another few years, have a listen to the second half of 'Decades'....What happens? The keyboard sounds like the equivalent of a guitar with a broken string- causing every other string to be out of tune. It seems to be in a totally different song, in a totally different KEY. *CRINGE* Otherwise, this is a worthy purchase. Not quite worth it's weight in gold (that distincition is saved for Closer), but perhaps worth it's weight in silver at least.

people are split 50/50 on this album. i think it's great. it's like a "mini" Heart And Soul, one you can take with you on one disc. it's got some great (then)unreleased tracks including "Exercise One", "The Sound Of Music" and "Something Must Break". i don't know how anyone could not like a Joy Division release; i'll take anything i can find. i particularly like the live version of "Means To An End", it's got some solid drumwerk from Stevo. this is also the only official record you'll hear JD's cover of "Sister Ray" on. don't get it just because it has Ian's last live show; get it because it's a great little record. this was actually one of the first JD albums i got into. it's not a hard listen. just open your ears.

Turn on the radio and you will hear tracks from rock bands and other performing artists reproducing all too familiar sounds of felicitous harmonies and harmless, often rudimentary lyrics. What you won't hear, sadly, is Joy Division and their haunting visions as expressed in their unique and original music style (a style that has often been imitated but seldom matched, with the possible exception of The Cure, Depeche Mode, and a handful of others). This isn't music for the faint at heart or for the connoisseur of mellifluous soft rock. It is not easy to listen to. However, achieving an awareness for this seminal band's technique is as a revelation to another dimension, a musical plane with dynamic properties: unpredictable and impetuous so far as to be ostensibly incomprehensible and yet infectiously irresistible at the same time.

Just as Impressionists altered the conventional wisdom of how art can be expressed on canvas, Joy Division introduced unconventional yet surpassing artistic arrangements in the musical medium that spawned a comparable revolution in the music industry. Their sound of the late 1970's, well represented on this long compilation of outtakes and live performances (nearly 80 minutes in length), was the perfect transition from the charged punk and Madchester scenes to the more sophisticated and inspiring sounds of new wave. This transition is perceptible with the progression of each track: starting from the experimental "Exercise One" and the aggressive (as well as danceable) "Ice Age," to their influential classics "Transmission" and "Isolation." You will also notice that many of the songs embellish dark themes, impeccably demonstrating the downward emotional spiral of lead singer Ian Curtis. You can almost hear him crying out for help, desperately struggling with his depression; it was a battle he would eventually succumb to, a tragic fate that only serves to intensify one's wonder of the musical possibilities he would have reached had his life not come to an untimely end.

Admittedly, this compilation is more for the seasoned Joy Division and New Order fans. A better introduction for the new listener would be their studio album "Closer," or their definitive single "Love Will Tear Us Apart." My personal favorites from "Still" are "The Sound of Music," "Walked in Line," and "Ceremony" (even with its poor technical quality). As I've said before, you will not get lavish or crisp sounds typical of radio friendly bands with huge studio production budgets, but you will get an outpouring of honest, raw emotion and rich musical textures, which is what Joy Division was all about. It's an experience not to be missed.

just an observation for [a past review], specifically the line: "those idiots put 2/5/80 on the sleeve when every fan knows it was actually 5/2/80"--in Europe, dates are shown as day/month/year, not month/day/year as they are in the States. No one was an idiot.

Cobbled together from out-takes, B-sides and live tracks, STILL's major problem is its lack of focus. The first half seems designed as a 'rarities'-type collection, but mostly consists of unfinished studio demos. There are some good songs, but the selection seems entirely arbitrary and is not comprehensive enough for the dedicated fan. The second half contains a recording of Joy Division's final concert, and while some songs such as 'Means to an End' and 'Isolation' translate well to a live setting, this performance is marred by mistakes and poor sound quality. More interesting from a fan's viewpoint is the only live performance of 'Ceremony' with Ian Curtis on vocals; it is heavier and more direct than New Order's version.
STILL does contain a handful of songs such as 'Exercise One' that are difficult to find elsewhere, but the release of better compilations such as SUBSTANCE has almost rendered this album obsolete. It might have been a better idea to combine the unreleased 'Warsaw' songs with some of the better outtakes as a 'Complete Rarities' package.

Studio album or not, this disk seems to give the best picture of what Joy Division really was . The first track creates an incredibly haunting atmosphere, while tracks like 'Ice Age' & 'Walked In Line' capture the aggressive punk sound they started with. The best is that long, slow & obsessively gloomy songs that appear on Unknown Pleasures & Closer are mostly absent here. Instead, what you get is more of the edgy, psychologically complex material that marked them as a band ahead of their time - with less wasteful wallowing. It seems strange that this disk is often overlooked, considering that some of Joy Division's most interesting work - including the amazing 'Something Must Break' are represented here. It stands on it's own as a great disk that holds up well under the test of time.

This is THE Joy Division recording to own. Yes, the sound is not studio quality during the live portion, and yes they make mistakes during the songs. It's live. But this is Joy Division as many heard them while they were together. And if you like live albums, and you love Joy Division, this is as good as it gets.

From the subway screech of Exercise One, to the raging guitar of Shadowplay, this record will take you on a desolate journey through rain-slick, city streets at 4AM into rage, pain, and lonliness. Powerful, mournful, and transcendent.