NEW ORDER: “Brotherhood” LP

Description

NEW ORDER: “Brotherhood” LP. Released 19th Sept 2025

Brotherhood is the fourth studio album by the English rock band New Order, released on 29 September 1986 by Factory Records. It contains a mixture of post-punk and electronic styles, roughly divided between the two sides. The album includes “Bizarre Love Triangle”, the band’s breakthrough single in the United States and Australia; it was the only track from the album released as a single and as a video (although “State of the Nation” was added to most CD editions).

The album sleeve, created by Peter Saville, is a photograph of a sheet of titanium–zinc alloy. Some early releases came in a metallic sleeve.

Brotherhood saw the band further exploring their mix of post-punk and electronic styles, with the track listing being conceptually divided into “disco and rock sides”. Stephen Morris stated that the album “was kind of done in a schizophrenic mood that we were trying to do one side synthesizers and one side guitars”, which he retrospectively stated “didn’t quite work”.

In a 1987 interview with Option, Morris commented that the “mad ending” to “Every Little Counts” – which sounds like a vinyl record needle skipping the groove – is similar to the ending of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life”. Morris said: “What we should have done is make the tape version sound like the tape getting chewed up. The CD could have the sticking sound.”

Influences of Richard Wagner’s “Prelude” to Das Rheingold can be heard throughout the track “All Day Long.” New Order have subsequently used the piece as a concert opener.

Side one
1. “Paradise” 3:50
2. “Weirdo” 3:52
3. “As It Is When It Was” 3:46
4. “Broken Promise” 3:47
5. “Way of Life” 4:06

Side two
6. “Bizarre Love Triangle” 4:22
7. “All Day Long” 5:12
8. “Angel Dust” 3:44
9. “Every Little Counts” 4:28