We offered a limited edition download of "The Perfect Kiss," catalog number L9 123, to celebrate our first anniversary in 2007.

Read the Wikipedia entry for this single.

L9 123 Amoeba Crunch, "The Perfect Kiss" 128k mp3, 7.1 MB Written by Gillian Gilbert, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Bernard Sumner. © Warner/Chappell Music Ltd. Used with permission. This recording © 2007 Amoeba Crunch. All rights reserved.

"The Perfect Kiss" is a favorite of ours that was written and originally performed by New Order, the great British post-punk band. It appeared in 1985 as a 12" single and in much truncated form on the album Low-Life.The song is a masterpiece of arrangement, with a vast range of textures and parts, and was tremendous fun to cover. Yet the original, mind boggling as it is, has not aged well. Just thirty seconds into it the obviously synthetic drums are beating you over the head shrieking, "You are listening to '80's music! Repeat! This is '80's music!" Don't get us wrong, we love '80's music and dig nothing more than stumbling upon it on a long drive (ah, radio), but of all of New Order's songs this one most deserved a 21st century upgrade.

Another thing we like about it is the video, a deadpan affair that must have stood out on vintage MTV like the home movie it was. Not only did it have absolutely no pretense (at least not beyond the implication that the band and filmmakers weren't even trying), it blasted a spotlight on how this notoriously enigmatic band created music. (Realize that the record sleeve of the 12" single version of "The Perfect Kiss" was, by excruciatingly calculated design, a nearly featureless gray square that didn't even include the band name.) Indeed, some of the parts are laughably simple and everyone who watches the video, regardless of their degree of musical ability, is guaranteed to smirk and say, "Jeeze, even I can play that." However, there is more going on here than meets the eye. The musicians so spectacularly fail to meet the traditional rock roles that it's compelling: There is no drummer, the bassist plays high notes almost exclusively, and the guitarist plays with all the passion of an airline pilot going through a takeoff checklist. There is no spandex, no exploding codpiece, and no histrionic egomaniac soaked in overdrive and Jack Daniel's. Yet it works, and it does more than work. Through its many verses, leads, croaking-frog breakdowns, and it's Earth-moving outro jam, "The Perfect Kiss" transcends.

And needless to say, the video is a neat tutorial of how to play the song. Being the lazy sods we are, that tipped our decision to cover it.