Dead Or Alive - Brand New Love

FYI: although there are several sources for the hit version of this song listed in the database, I thought I'd add that on iTunes right now they have one copy that matches the single. Sorta.

"That's the Way I Like It: The Best of Dead or Alive" (P)2010 Sony Entertainment UK Limited has "Brand New Lover (Edit)" HOWEVER...

It is significantly slower than the low quality copy I already had. In fact, while it lists its running time as 3:41, once you speed it up 2 & 1/2% - 3% to get it to the right playing speed, the length is nearly identical.

It is a dense copy, but not clipped, so if you didn't already have a good clean copy of this one, you can pick it up for 99 cents on iTunes.

One other oddity about it: after speeding up, I noticed the new iTunes copy starts out about 119.1 bpm, but at the 2nd verse it jumps to 119.9, and 120.4 - 120.5 by the bridge, where it pretty well stays until the end of the song.

My lo-fi copy holds pretty steady throughout at 119.4 - 119.5 bpm.

...Do you suppose they figured out they were playing to too slow while they were dubbing it and decided to slowly speed it up instead of re-dubbing?

There's no question that they speed up AT certain points in the song, because when I use a constant ramp throughout, it falls in and out of sync. The 1st verse needs to be sped up 3%, the 2nd verse 2.4%, and the bridge to the end needs to be sped up 2%.

Just out of interest, Brand New Lover is not the only song on this album that plays too slow. Lover Come Back To Me (which was a hit here in New Zealand) also runs considerably slower on this disc than it does on the original 45. I owned That's The Way I Like It: The Best Of Dead Or Alive on CD at one point but I ended up selling it for that exact reason.