Songfacts®:

• After after Ian Curtis' tragic demise, Joy Division broke up and New Order rose like a phoenix. By the time they released the album Low-Life in 1985, it was clear that New Order had fully mastered their art, with a techno-pop sound and synth-beats. "The Perfect Kiss" is the first single released from the album.
• New Order wrote, recorded, and mixed the song quickly, crafting it without any kip before embarking on an Australian tour. The twin themes of love and death echo at the song's core. "We believe in a land of love" reveals a yearning for affection, while "the perfect kiss is the kiss of death" hints at our mortality.
• Pretending not to see his gun
  I said, 'Let's go out and have some fun'
  
  These lines refer to an incident when the band was visiting a man's house in the United States. He unveiled his arsenal of guns under his bed to them, but they just wanted to have an enjoyable night out.
• 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
  
  This likely references Ian Curtis' affair with the Belgian journalist Annik Honoré, which destroyed his relationship with his wife, Deborah Woodruff. Curtis was apparently consumed by guilt as a result of his affair, and it may have contributed to his suicide.
• The song's complex arrangement includes several sound effects. For example, the bridge is adorned with melodically croaking frogs. This is a nod to the timeless fairy tale where a princess kisses a frog and he turns into a handsome prince - the "perfect kiss."
  
  At the end of the track, a faint bleating of a synthesized sheep resounds. New Order later did the same thing on their singles "Fine Time" (1989) and "Ruined In A Day" (1993).
• Clocking in at nearly 9 minutes, the full 12-inch single version of this song surpasses "Blue Monday," New Order's dance epic from 1983. The Low-Life version is a 4:48 edit.
• American filmmaker Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1993)) directed the video, which depicts the band playing the song from beginning to end in their rehearsal room. Henri Alekan, Jean Cocteau's lighting cameraman, did the cinematography.
  
  The rehearsal room was a former showroom where they used to fix gas cookers. It wasn't exactly renowned for its atmosphere. "It had nine skylights, and Jonathan wanted all the skylights out, so he could film from above," bassist Peter Hook recalled to Uncut magazine. "Which didn't get used. So we took the skylights out, and the whole thing was lit up like a Hollywood movie set. Which drew every scumbag in Salford to it like the Star Of Bethlehem. We got robbed for months after. In the end we had to concrete over the skylights. Never saw daylight in there again."