Bizarre_Love_Triangle

Bizarre Love Triangle

Bizarre Love Triangle

1986 song by New Order


"Bizarre Love Triangle" is a song by English rock band New Order, released as a single in November 1986 from their fourth studio album, Brotherhood (1986), which reached the top five on the US Hot Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart,[9] and No. 5 on the Australian ARIA Charts in March 1987. It failed to enter the top 40 of both the UK Singles Chart and the US Billboard Hot 100; however, a new mix included on The Best of New Order was released in 1994 and charted at No. 98 on the Hot 100. In 2004, the song was ranked No. 204 on Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."[10]

Quick Facts Single by New Order, from the album Brotherhood ...

Releases

The 12-inch version, remixed by Shep Pettibone, also appears on the compilation Substance and a second remix by Stephen Hague features on their Best Of album. The original album version appears on the 2005 compilation Singles, the 7-inch version appears on the 2016 reissue of this compilation. New Order's live versions since 1998 are based on the Shep Pettibone remix.[11]

The single mix features more electronics than the album version, with the Fairlight CMI music workstation used to provide sounds such as the orchestral hits, and to sequence the song. All instruments except vocals and Peter Hook's melodic bass were sequenced (the song also prominently features synthesised bass and synth choir parts).[12]

Reception

"Bizarre Love Triangle" has been critically acclaimed since its release. In a 30th anniversary retrospective citing the song as one of the greatest of all time, Billboard described it as a "synth-pop masterpiece" and "an incandescent jewel of mid-'80s computer love."[13] NME praised the song as New Order's "finest pop moment" and credited its simplicity in comparison to previous singles such as "Blue Monday".[14] In 2004, the song was ranked No. 204 in Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."[10] In 2013, Stereogum ranked the song No. 2 on their list of the 10 greatest New Order songs,[15] and in 2021, The Guardian ranked the song No. 7 on their list of the 30 greatest New Order songs.[16]

Music video

The music video, which was released in November 1986, was directed by American artists Robert Longo and Gretchen Bender. It prominently featured shots of a man and a woman in business suits flying through the air as though propelled by trampolines; this is based directly on Longo's "Men in the Cities" series of lithographs.[17] The video has a black and white cut-scene where Jodi Long and E. Max Frye are arguing about reincarnation, in which Long emphatically declares "I don't believe in reincarnation because I refuse to come back as a bug or as a rabbit!" Frye responds, "You know, you're a real 'up' person," before the song resumes.[18] It also features clips that Gretchen would later use for her next project "Total Recall".

Track listings

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  • Initial pressings (matrix FAC-26-A) were the UK 7-inch mix; later pressings (matrix FAC-26-A2) were the Canadian 7-inch mix
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  • US editions mis-credit "Bizarre Dub Triangle" as "I Don't Care", reputedly due to a record company person contacting New Order's Manager Rob Gretton to ask what to name the mix as, Gretton is claimed to have said "I don't care"[19]
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Personnel

Charts

More information Chart (1986–1987), Peak position ...

Cover versions and remixes


References

  1. Hook, Peter (6 October 2016). Substance: Inside New Order. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 9781471132438. Retrieved 19 July 2017 via Google Books.
  2. Lindsay, Cam (8 September 2015). "An Essential Guide to New Order". Exclaim!. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  3. "80 best love songs of the 1980s". Cleveland. 31 August 2018.
  4. "Dreams Never End". Uncut. 1 January 2003. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  5. "New Order, 'Bizarre Love Triangle'". Rolling Stone. 11 December 2003. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  6. Flint, Tom (April 2004). "Recreating New Order's 'Blue Monday' Live". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  7. Fortner, Stephen (September 2005). "New Order. New Album. Old School. All Good". Keyboard. Archived from the original on 18 December 2005.
  8. Elan, Priya (29 November 2017). "Why 'Bizarre Love Triangle' is New Order's finest pop moment". NME. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  9. Lariviere, Aaron (25 January 2013). "The 10 Best New Order Songs". Stereogum. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  10. Petridis, Alexis (7 January 2021). "New Order's 30 greatest tracks – ranked!". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  11. Shamberg, Michael. "Bizarre Love Triangle". kinoteca.net. Archived from the original on 15 January 2006.
  12. "Gretchen Bender, Tracking The Thrill", Page 62, "Music Video's",2013.
  13. "Recycle 13: Bizarre Love Triangle". neworder-recycle.blogspot. 5 September 2009. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014.
  14. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, New South Wales, Australia: Australian Chart Book. p. 215. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  15. "Frente! Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  16. "FRENTE Chart History". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  17. "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles 1994". Australian Recording Industry Association. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2019.

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