There are fewer more iconic songs in the post-punk cannon than Joy Division‘s “She’s Lost Control”—and for good reason. The mythos around the band’s lead singer, Ian Curtis, alongside its inherent melancholy dance beat and boiling hysteria, “She’s Lost Control” fits like perfectly into the goth psyche. To cover a song that has been embedded into the very fabric of the scene can be risky: it requires an understanding of the song’s history, its future, and the inherent knowledge that the cover will always be compared to the original (good or not).
The California-based trio PAASTEL took all into consideration for their first single from their forthcoming EP Colourwheel with their own interpretation of “She’s Lost Control.” As the side project of Blake Voss (of Vandal Moon), his signature low-registered vocals take center stage as they bellow with a gloomy certainty. (“Covering Joy Division might be a smug thing to do, but making art without some brashness is boring,” notes Voss.) Shoegaze-oriented, the song pulls the reins on the manic nature of the original and transforms it into a grinding fever dream that swells into a wall of sound at its resolution.
Vocalist, A. Amaril remarks: “The song is timeless because it’s so honest and personal. You can’t play it the same way and create the same feeling, because it’s not yours. So we made it warmer, heavier. It’s still a dark song, but instead of drowning in sorrow, now it soars above a sea of noise.”
This genre-crossing transformation adds even more facets to the song, a slogging, fitful resonance that is both alarming and vulnerable. Bandmember G. Brown adds: “Shoegaze sits at the other side of the production spectrum from what I normally do. You don’t leave any spaces – you fill the spaces with a wall of beautiful, swirling noise. We start out faithfully, with Blake’s vocals evoking Ian Curtis, then the chorus hits and it’s more like Kevin Shields has taken over. Does it work? I think it works beautifully – a credit to this magnificent song.”
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