Significant longplayers from yesteryear
29 September 2026
Manchester’s synth-guitar-pop kingpins NEW ORDER released their 4th LP,
named BROTHERHOOD on 29 September 1986, today 40 years ago.
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 (drummer) said: “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”.
The album sleeve, created by Factory Records‘ house illustrator
Peter Saville, is a photograph of a sheet of titanium–zinc alloy
It peaked at #9 in the UK, #15 in Australia
and, oops, only at #117 in the US.
UNCUT Magazine (British music monthly) “There’s an increased tension between
the frequent beauty of the music and the band’s Northern self-consciousness. This was
New Order becoming New Order and if anyone was entitled to not be Joy Division, they
certainly were.”
SINGLE
The album’s only single, ‘Bizarre Love Triangle ‘, was the band’s breakthrough single
in the United States and Australia. It was the only track from the album released as
a single.
ALBUM