My Recommendation: Bad Lieutenant

To wrap up the week, I have one of my favorite songs of 2011, though this song came out in 2009 but I only stumbled upon it in 2011. On that note today’s recommendation comes from Salford, England by the band Bad Lieutenant which comprises of Bernard Sumner, Phil Cunningham (former members of New Order) and Jake Evans, with guest appearances from other members of New Order and Alex James of Blur.

The band came together when New Order started falling apart and Peter Hook left the band, Bernard tried to hold the band together briefly but later decided to move on and formed Bad Lieutenant. The name of the band is taken from the 1992 Harvey Keitel crime-drama masterpiece of the same name.

The song I’m recommending, Twist Of Fate comes from their debut album Never Cry Another Tear. I am a big fan of Bernard Sumner’s past bands Joy Division & New Order, so I had a soft corner for Bad Lieutenant from the get go even though their album has mostly received mixed reviews. I think people are trying to compare the music of Bad Lieutenant with Joy Division & New Order, which in my opinion is not fair because; a) Both these bands are established names in the industry especially Joy Division being an influence on a long list of very successful acts to follow and b) In Bad Lieutenant I think Bernard Sumner is trying to do something new, he moved away from the electro sounds of New Order which seem to have ticked a lot of critics, he has taken a backseat in vocals department and shown a lot of trust in Evans, the result is a fresh crunchy sound with all the melodies intact. There are quite a few remixed versions of this song available, I’ll throw the official version here don’t forget to checkout the Facebook page for other remixed versions, here’s the song