Brand New Lover

"Brand New Lover" is a song recorded by the English pop band Dead or Alive. It was the lead single released from the band's third studio album, Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know on Epic Records. It achieved international success when released as a single in 1986, but while it was a major hit in a number of territories, including the United States and Japan, in the UK the single significantly underperformed, failing to crack the top 20. He said this changed when Bananarama had major success with their Dead or Alive inspired cover of "Venus", which Burns claimed encouraged the label to schedule "Brand New Lover" for release. By contrast, Ro Newton of Smash Hits considered "it's just the same old Hi NRG stomp" and "that's a lost thing" here, as there are "no surprises, no shocks and harldy worth the wait". Retrospectively, in 2020, Daniel Griffiths of musicradar. com considered it a "criminally overlooked nine minute plus, rock guitar remix tour de force". In 2021, British magazine Classic Pop ranked "Brand New Lover" number 31 in their list of "Top 40 Stock/Aitken/Waterman songs", adding that it "shared rhythmic similarities to their No.1 smash "You Spin Me Round" but leaned heavily on the synth bass, with Pete Burns' goth pop tones vocalising his need to flee his lover".

"Brand New Lover" proved to be more successful in the US and in Japan than in the band's native UK, where it reached number 31. In the US, "Brand New Lover" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (the band's second and last single to reach the top 20), and spent two weeks at number one on the American dance chart in December 1986.