"Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)" is a song by the English alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 band Muse

Muse (band)

Muse are an English alternative rock band from Teignmouth, Devon, formed in 1994. The band consists of school friends Matthew Bellamy , Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard...

, featured on the soundtrack

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (soundtrack)

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is the soundtrack album to the film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. It is the third soundtrack in the film's chronology, and was released on June 8, 2010. The soundtrack was once again co-produced by Alexandra Patsavas, the music supervisor for the previous two films...

 to the 2010 film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Recorded by the band in 2010, the song was released as the lead single

Lead single

A lead single is usually the first single released by a musician or a band before the release of its home album.During the era of the grammophone record, all music arrived in the marketplace as what is now termed a single, one potential hit song backed by an additional song of generally less...

 from the album on 17 May 2010. The song is available to purchase as a digital download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 from the band's official website, among several other digital sources.

History

The song was first announced on Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer is an American author known for her vampire romance series Twilight. The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition and sold over 100 million copies globally, with translations into 37 different languages...

's official website. BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

 aired the full song at 7.30pm on 17 May 2010, during Zane Lowe

Zane Lowe

Zane Lowe also known as 'Zipper', is a radio DJ and television presenter. He was born in New Zealand and grew up in Auckland, where he was a presenter on the local music station Max TV, before moving to England...

's show, accompanied by an interview with Matt Bellamy. Matt Bellamy explained that the song was written after he split with his longtime girlfriend at the end of 2009, and was based on his feelings at the beginning of their relationship. A 30-second preview of the music video is displayed on the official MTV website. While Muse featured on the Twilight and New Moon soundtracks previously (with "Supermassive Black Hole" and a special remix of "I Belong to You" respectively), this marks the first time the band has produced the lead single for a movie.

Music video

The video first shows Matt Bellamy playing on his piano while red smoke rises from the background. When the first "love is forever" is uttered, the scene shifts to a scene from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The video continues to play clips from Eclipse until the near end of the song, where the piano scene is seen again.

Reception

In a positive review, BBC Music described the song as Muse, "turning their reality-altering Preposteriser Ray on their own back catalogue." Above and Beyond Magazine described it as, "“Neutron Star Collision…reminds [me] of their previous work Origin of Symmetry, which is in my mind, the real and honest Muse.”

Chart performance

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Chart (2010)	Peak position
Italian Singles Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy....	10
New Zealand Singles Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand...	27
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	77
U.S. Billboard Rock Songs Rock Songs Rock Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the airplay of songs on alternative, mainstream rock and triple A radio stations. The first chart was published in the issue dated June 20, 2009. "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day was the first number-one song. The Rock Songs...	24
U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs	14
Canadian Hot 100 Canadian Hot 100 The Canadian Hot 100 is a music singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks songs in Canada. The chart debuted in the Billboard issue dated June 16, 2007 and was made available for the first time via their online services on June 7, 2007...	60
European Hot 100	31
Czech T-Music Chart	9
Swedish Singles Chart Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association ....	25

Year-end charts

Chart (2010)	Peak position
Italian Singles Chart	71