Album: Still
January 4th 2009 14:56
"Exercise One" opens Still with Curtis intimating a then-prophetic line: "Time for one last ride before the end of it all." Elsewhere, the band addresses cataclysm (the hyper "Ice Age") and Gogol references ("Dead Souls," a standout track) with equal aplomb. These songs are brutal and metallic. "I can't see life getting better," Curtis screams on "The Sound of Music," its title a pointedly ironic allusion to the sweetness and light that is unattainable for the lost and the lonely.
Side two--Ian's last show before his death--is haphazard. There are better documents of Joy Division's vicious live presence. Yet even the oft-criticized concert set features a must-have: a jittery version of the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray." "You should hear our version of 'Louie, Louie'" Curtis jokes. Sadly, his sense of humor would soon be overwhelmed by his own self-destructive tendencies.
I often explain Joy Division to people by saying that they are one of only a few artists whose entire recorded output is worth owning (the others in this exclusive club would be Gram Parsons and Big Star). Every note is inspired. Still offers no clues as to what Curtis and Joy Division would have become. Perhaps that ambiguity is the entire point of this underappreciated collection.
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