A nice tribute to Ian Curtis, Joy Division and "Control"

It's that date again (May 18), which always makes me remember two facts that happened in 1980 exactly: the eruption of Mount St. Helens in the state of Washington, and the death of Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis. No relation to one another but it's the exact same day, a tragic date on all accounts. Fans always remember him on the date, tributes happen everywhere.

This year in particular, as usual is sad, reflective, and this time I was saddened because I wouldn't be able to write anything about the man and his music since Joy Division only has two music videos (all posted in this website over the years and I wrote some words about them). But somehow, instead on focusing on the usual same thoughts when this date comes I got myself thinking that I should see things with a different perspective, not just about remembering Ian's suicide and the things that affected him through most of his life that he couldn't handle no more but instead I tried to focus in his brilliancy, his life and work and the things that stays with us today, specially with his art. With that in mind, I was suddenly reminded of this video by The Killers paying their tribute to Joy Division with a cover of "Shadowplay", featuring clips from Ian's biopic "Control" (one of my favorite films of all time). It's a different perspective, indeed. Hence why I'm here.

Well, it's a nice cover of a great song, The Killers don't look back while doing that, but it's one of those challenges where you risk so much of yourself to get a certain result and sometimes it's not much of a worthy thing to do. Curtis amazing baritone voice brings a fresh quality to anything he performs and Joy Division's sound is something from another world, it cannot be imitated. Brandon Flowers present their own version of it, it's cool but it's far from memorable, and not even their presence in the video makes it all so interesting while appearing in black-and-white televised effects mixed with the powerful and unforgettable scenes from Anton Corbijn's film "Control" starring Sam Riley as Ian.

What can I say, this video works as a proper introduction to a great film, it works as a nice soundtrack video and it's made with great quality, something quite rare these days, I mean do film soundtracks with clips are still a thing lately? Can't remember seeing one lately.

For the fans of the American band who never heard about the British band before - and it's a quite possible scenario with the youngsters since JD only made two albums - here's the chance to discover the sound, the lyricsm and the poetry of Ian Curtis and the great Joy Division. Long live Ian C. 7/10.

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The Killers perform a cover of Joy Division's single "Shadowplay". The music video presents the group in obscure moments aligned with clips and scenes from the motion picture Control (2007), which tells the story of lead singer Ian Curtis and his band Joy Division.

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