The Perfect Kiss is the ninth single by New Order, released on 13 May 1985. It is also the second track on the album Low-Life, which released on the same day. It's given the Factory release number of 123. It was originally performed with the title "I've Got A Cock Like The M1" by Bernard Sumner at the Music for Miner's concert on 14 May 1984. This version also has different lyrics.[1][2]
Single[]
The single did not sell very well, due to a lack of marketing and a blank sleeve Peter Saville made (see picture). They were going to use a photo the new photographer, Geoff Power, made, but they didn't. The sleeve was unused, but his photography would be used later for "Shellshock".
Frogs croaking are used prominently near the end of the song.
The B-sides are: Kiss of Death, a remix of the song, and Perfect Pit.
This version has a music video, featuring the band performing the song live in the studio. A poster for Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures is seen behind Bernard Sumner as he strums his guitar. It was given the Factory catalogue number of 321, the reverse of the single's.
From the album[]
The album version is 4 minutes in length, cutting out a verse, and starting and ending with extracts from Kiss of Death, before it fades away.
Reception and Reviews[]
Allmusic's Mike DeGagne gave this review "Formed after the disintegration of Joy Division and the death of Ian Curtis, New Order continued (and strengthened) their techno-pop, synth-beat sound, emerging as one of the most influential groups in the field. By the time Low-Life was released in 1985, the band had fully mastered their fashioned keyboard grooves and heavy bass lines, and singer/guitarist Bernard Summer's vocals added a well-balanced humanistic feel to New Order's textured rhythms. One of the group's most dynamic tracks comes in the form of "Perfect Kiss," and, like a lot of New Order's material, it was first issued as a 12" single but ended up gracing the Low-Life album. The track's slightly stressed rhythmic undercurrent, crisp movement, and flawless dance club beat accompany Summer's vocals without diminishing them the least bit and New Order had yet another hit, forged in the same style as 1982's "Blue Monday." While the album itself stands as one of New Order's best, the release of all of New Order's 12" singles makes up 1987's Substance, including "Perfect Kiss" in its remixed state, and it's just as worthy (if not slightly better) than the original. While the differences aren't overwhelming, Substance's version of "Perfect Kiss" gives off a little more pop charm in amongst the rest of the band's strongest cuts. Low-Life went to number seven in the U.K. but debuted at number 94 in the U.S., while the original version of "Perfect Kiss" made it into the Top Five dance chart in America but stalled at number 46 in England. Since the band's formation in 1980, many modes of techno-pop and synth-laden dance music have come and gone, but none have equaled the style and flair of New Order's."[3]
Lyrics[]
The third verse doesn't appear on the album version.
I stood there beside myself,
Thinking hard about the weather
Then came by a friend of mine
Suggested we go out together
Then I knew it from the start:
This friend of mine would fall apart
Pretending not to see his gun,
I said "let's go out and have some fun"
I know, you know, we believe in a land of love
I know, you know, we believe in a land of love
I have always thought about
Staying here and going out
Tonight I should have stayed at home,
Playing with my pleasure zone
He has always been so strange,
I'd often thought he was deranged
Pretending not to see his gun,
I said "let's go out and have some fun"
I know, you know, we believe in a land of love
I know, you know, we believe in a land of love
When you are alone at night
You search yourself for all the things
That you believe are right
If you give it all away
You throw away your only chance to be here today
Then a fight breaks out on your street
You lose another broken heart in a land of meat
My friend, he took his final breath
Now I know the perfect kiss is the kiss of death