No Matter How I Fight It, Can’t Deny It…(I Still – Song Spotlight)

Who are you now…
Are you still the same or did you change somehow?
What do you do…
At this very moment when I think of you?

First off, let me start with an apology for letting my blogging fall into a lull. My life, job, getting sick, fandom life…all of it basically piled up to where this fell to the side. I feel guilty and I appreciate all of you still reading this, still visiting this site, and still supporting it. You guys have no idea what your feedback means to me and I really do love it. I have other posts in the work (including on on The Boy Band Con) but “I Still” came on. I suddenly got the urge to talk about it, so here we are. I’ve talked about Never Gone as a whole before and my complicated feelings on that album. But there are songs I absolutely love beyond reason and “I Still” is beyond a doubt one of them.

I think it’s because in an album that is over all, arguably their biggest departure to date from that “Backstreet Sound” they’ve had over the years? This song is the perfect example of sticking to it while managing to evolve it into something new. It’s something they do again and again on later albums like with Permanent Stain, or with Passionate. But in I Still, it’s harmonic, it’s upbeat, and it’s also haunting. It’s this odd combination that really drives the song as well as it does. It’s a song of absolute yearning, pleading with someone who has shut you out completely. You want to move on, but you can’t. Those feelings are still there no matter what you try and do to chase them away. There’s not a person in the world who can’t relate to this. You can’t help but sing along either.

Do you guys remember the interviews the Boys did while they were making Never Gone? When they were asked about the music? For those who are newer to the fandom or might’ve been just a tad too young back then as the album will hit it’s fourteenth anniversary in a couple months, the word they always used was “organic”. It was too the point the fandom kept cracking jokes about it. That was THE word. Organic. Organic. Organic. And when we heard the album many of us were admittedly a bit confused at how it described the album. I Still however, was one of the tracks this truly suited. The instrumentation is more simplistic in my opinion, letting this song focus on what really matters – the singing. It’s not overproduced. There’s not a ton of effects. Combining this with the lyrics and meaning of the song is why it stands up so well this many years later.

And you know what’s frustrating? Most fans forget that while this song was in fact a single around the world…IT NEVER BECAME A SINGLE HERE IN THE STATES.. Nope. It wasn’t released here. Something that really drove a lot of US fans absolutely bonkers. Myself included. Instead they released Crawling Back To You as a single, without a video, without any real push. It’s something I’ve suspected they were forced to do by the label but I have nothing to back that beyond the fact they never performed it on TV, and that never tried to really help the single succeed. That’s why many fans have forgotten that “I Still” wasn’t released here, in that it had a video, they kept singing it, it makes sense. My brain just doesn’t let these type of injustices go though so it still makes me want to stab things.

Especially when the music video is as good as it is.

It’s one of the few videos that really suits the song. The story of the video absolutely matches the story of the song. How often does that happen? Right. Exactly. So hopefully, as the DNA World Tour begins to kick off in just a month, “I Still” is remembered for the masterpiece that is absolutely is and is added back to the set list. I know my odds of seeing that are slim due to the fact they have a massive catalogue of songs they need to comb through and pick from. But I mean, if Don’t Wanna Lose You Now, and I Wanna Be With You are on it, then maybe the chances aren’t so crazy on seeing them performing it live again.

If you see this Boys, think about it. It’s been far too long and a song this good absolutely deserves it.