After its title track, "Modern Love" was the second song Bowie recorded in December 1982 at the Power Station (formerly Avatar Studios) in Manhattan, New York City.

[5] It was co-produced by Nile Rodgers of the American disco band Chic, who had originally hoped to make a "very noncommercial, avant-garde album" with Bowie.

[7] Bowie said Little Richard, his "earliest rock hero", was an inspiration for songs like "Modern Love", specifically the call-and-response sections.

[7] "Modern Love" is a rock song that has elements of new wave and soul music[3] and features a "chukka-chukka" rhythm that's "at once funky and strange", followed by a "soothing" electronic riff.

"[15] Since its release, "Modern Love" has received acclaim from music critics, who praised Bowie's songwriting, its production and its power as an opening track.

[7] In a review of Let's Dance, which Robert Christgau found "perfunctory" and mused "whether Bowie-the-thespian really cares much about pop music these days", he felt that "Modern Love" was the album's "only interesting new song".

[21] AllMusic writer Dave Thompson described the song as a "high-energy, effervescent rocker", writing, "it epitomizes all that was good about Bowie's 1983 reinvention as a willing superstar.

"[22] While he believed that the song's production had started to sound dated in subsequent decades, it is "nevertheless a furiously punchy number, redolent of an old-time rocker".

[22] Ryan wrote “'Modern Love' is basically one long hook, which perhaps obscures the anxiety about faith — in both the almighty and relationships — at the song's core.

"[15] Pegg deemed it energetic, "brilliantly performed" and "undeniably catchy" but criticised it for being "depressingly superficial" compared with Bowie's previous work.

[24] Biffy Clyro covered "Modern Love" in February 2018 for The Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie, which was hosted by Tony Visconti.

They noted the "tragic irony" to the track in that it is not about how Bowie managed to "make a perfect song about his cynicism at the world" but rather that his "prescient observations" of the 1980s music industry exposed the "hollowness" of his 1980s works.