“Bizarre Love Triangle” by New Order

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A good pop song will make you reflexively excited at the first note. A good dancesong will have you resisting the urge to move in your chair. New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” checks both boxes.

I was in junior high when I found New Order—or rather, they found me—and at just the right time. I once heard the band described as a mass-produced secret. All these years later, it still fits. For everyone who loves them, and there are millions of us, there are just as many who have no idea who they are, even if they recognize the songs.

Brotherhood often gets overlooked in discussions about the band’s discography, and to be fair, it does occupy a bit of a weird space in the group’s timeline. With one foot in the “old days” of Joy Division and the other firmly planted in Italian discos, the band was split on which direction to go. So they did the only thing they could; Side A is primarily acoustic, and Side B is dominated by digital. Bizarre Love Triangle kicks off Side B and sets the tone early. As good as Side A is, the song isn’t halfway over before it’s clear what the future looks like for New Order.

And what a bright future it was! With its Europop flourishes, gorgeous synths, and weapons-grade beat, it’s not so much a sound as it is an anthem. It was also unlike much of what else was happening at the time. The band was forging new ground for themselves and, along the way, redefined what dance pop meant for all of us.

For a song built on sequencers and 1s and 0s, it’s surprisingly warm and infectious.

Bizarre Love Triangle was the second single from the record (after “State of the Nation”) and the band’s 13th overall. Like most New Order tracks, it has multiple remixes and versions. My favorite is still the original album version. The edges haven’t been remixed away yet, and the bass and drum machines are on point.

The version most people know is the 12” remix handled by Shep Pettibone. It’s stretched out, with a few new parts and a few other touches purpose-built for the dance floor. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s still pretty true to the original–certainly compared to others that followed later.

The track did okay on the charts, peaking at No. 4 on the US Dance chart. One of the (many) peculiarities about New Order is that they never enjoyed the sort of chart success you’d expect from a band with such massive fan support. Maybe it was marketing. Maybe it was bad timing. Perhaps they were just far enough outside the mainstream to never really hit.

Maybe not enough people were in on the secret.

It’s a shame, really. They’re missing out on a gorgeous bit of dance-pop brilliance guaranteed to make the day just a little brighter. Get your good headphones and dancing shoes out for this one–you’re in for a treat.