Joy Division - Still (Collector's Edition 2007)

Ian Curtis' death prompted a flood of bootlegs and similar "tributes," likely motivated more by profit than anything else. Seeking to trump this problem — though arguably coming from much the same standpoint — Factory issued Still in 1981, a haphazard if still useful collection of odds, ends, and more. Considering that the band's many singles weren't properly compiled until much later on Substance, Still makes only partial sense — the studio cuts were mostly outtakes, while the live songs had their own problems. Of the studio takes, only two tracks had seen formal release beforehand — the mesmerizing post-punk meets R&B groove of "Glass" and the searing "Dead Souls," certainly both worthy of even more listens. Beyond that, things were more hit and miss, with strong instrumental performances given to slightly indifferent songs and vice versa. The anthemic "Something Must Break" is one of the best, while the nervous "Ice Age" is an agreeable enough thrash and "The Only Mistake" a melodramatic but still effective effort. Other numbers like "The Sound of Music" and the heavily compressed pound of "Walked in Line" sound more like sketches on the way to becoming truly great songs. A live ringer concludes the studio half, a fair enough take on the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" (at under half the length) which concludes with Curtis' wry joke, "You should hear our version of 'Louie, Louie'!" The remainder of Still is a rather morbid gift for fans — a middling recording of the final Joy Division show, mere days before Curtis' death. A fierce, invigorating rip through "Ceremony," formally recorded later as New Order's first single, suffers from Curtis' vocal going missing at the start, while the remainder of the show finds the singer either too detached or too harsh, the other musicians doing an OK but not great job themselves. The takes on "New Dawn Fades" and "Decades" in particular tarnish rather than enhance Joy Division's memory. [Rhino's 2007 reissue contains the album in remastered form on the first disc. A second disc features the band's February 20, 1980 appearance at High Wycombe Town Hall, including six songs from the soundcheck. Jill Furmanovsky's photos, Peter Saville's design, and Jon Wozencroft's liner notes make up the booklet.]

Track list:

Cd1 - Still
01 Exercise One
02 Ice Age
03 Sound of Music
04 Glass
05 The Only Mistake
06 Walked in Line
07 The Kill
08 Something Must Break
09 Dead Souls
10 Sister Ray
11 Ceremony
12 Shadowplay
13 Means to an End
14 Passover
15 New Dawn Fades
16 Transmission
17 Disorder
18 Isolation
19 Decades
20 Digital

Cd2 - High Wycombe Town Hall 20. Feb. 1980
01 The Sound Of Music
02 A Means To An End
03 Colony
04 Twenty Four Hours
05 Isolation
06 Love Will Tear Us Apart
07 Disorder
08 Atrocity Exhibition
09 Isolation (Sound Check)
10 The Eternal (Sound Check)
11 Ice Age (Sound Check)
12 Disorder (Sound Check)
13 The Sound Of Music (Sound Check)
14 A Means To An End (Sound Check)

Credits:
Artwork By [Booklet Art Direction] - Peter Saville
Artwork By [Booklet Design] - Parris Saville Wakefield
Compilation Producer [Editorial Consultants And Archival Research] - Jon Wozencroft , Robert Elfving , Sam Habash
Engineer - Chris Nagle (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Mastered By - Drew Crumbaugh (tracks: 2-1 to 2-14) , Jon Davis* (tracks: 1-1 to 1-20)
Other [Booklet Picture Research] - Daniel Mason
Photography [Booklet] - ©Jill Furmanovsky/rockarchive.com
Producer - Martin Hannett (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9)
Recorded By [Original] - Duncan Haysom (tracks: 2-1 to 2-14)
Technician [Original Recording Transferred By / Thanks To] - Tim Bayes
Technician [Original Recording Transferred By] - Robert Elfving (tracks: 2-1 to 2-14)
Written-By - Joy Division (tracks: 1-1 to 1-9, 1-11 to 1-20)
Both CDs are held in a gatefold cardboard digipack which in turn is held in a firm plastic sleeve sporting Collector's Edition at the bottom. The plastic sleeve features a bar code sticker which reads: "Re-mastered studio album with bonus disc of a previously unreleased live show from the Town Hall, High Wycombe".
The release features the almost identical artwork from the Factory Records release.
A black and white booklet featuring new band interviews, photos and track overviews is also held in the digipack.
1-1 to 1-9, 1-11 to 1-20, 2-1 to 2-14 published by Fractured Music.
1-10 to 1-20 recorded at Birmingham University, 2/5/80.
1-10 recorded at The Moonlight Club, London, 3/4/80.
1-10 published by Sunbury Music Ltd.
GRAFICA INDUSTRIA
FACD 40 A Factory Records Product