Sweetest Perfection

← 1. World In My Eyes

2. Sweetest Perfection List of Violator songs

3. Personal Jesus →

Sweetest Perfection
Song	Sweetest Perfection
By	Depeche Mode
Songwriter	Martin L. Gore
Produced by	Depeche Mode Flood
Recorded at	Puk Studios, Denmark Logic Studios, Milan
Length (mm:ss)	4:43
Tempo	101 BPM
Time signature	3 4
Key	B Major
Engineering assistance	Daryl Bamonte Dick Meaney David Browne Mark Flannery
Mixed by	François Kevorkian
Recorded	May 1989 – January 1990
Originally released	19 March 1990
Live performances as Depeche Mode	21 times *
Total live performances	29 times *

"Sweetest Perfection" is a song from the 1990 album Violator by Depeche Mode.

Notes

Alan Wilder describes how the outro came to be in a Q&A on Shunt, the official Recoil website: "The weird stuff at the end came together during the mixing stage (with François Kevorkian). It's the kind of thing you resort to when you haven't really got an ending ;-)"

In 2006, all of Depeche Mode's studio albums were being remastered. Engineer Kevin Paul told Sound On Sound magazine: "'Sweetest Perfection' was completely crazy. It has lots of tape loops, lots of phasing, all sorts of crazy sounds going on. That was really hard to emulate and I had to put my personal spin on it just to get it to work."

Lyrics

Sweetest Perfection

The sweetest perfection

To call my own

The slightest correction

Couldn't finely hone

The sweetest infection

Of body and mind

Sweetest injection

Of any kind

I stop and I stare too much

Afraid that I care too much

And I hardly dare to touch

For fear that the spell may be broken

When I need a drug in me

And it brings out the thug in me

Feel something tugging me

Then I want the real thing not tokens

Things you'd expect to be

Having effect on me

Pass undetectedly

But everyone knows what has got me

Takes me completely

Touches me sweetly

Reaches so deeply

I know that nothing can stop me

Sweetest perfection

An offer was made

An assorted collection

But I wouldn't trade

The sweetest perfection

To call my own

The slightest correction

Couldn't finely hone (Nothing can stop me)

The sweetest infection (Takes me completely)

Of body and mind (Touches so sweetly)

Sweetest injection (Reaches so deeply)

Of any kind

Songwriter: Martin L. Gore
Publishing Information: ©1990 Grabbing Hands Music Ltd/EMI Music Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Composition

Sample sources

"Sweetest Perfection" Depeche Mode 1990	Self-made samples
	Sample	Notes			Audio
	Drum elements, tom drum	A manipulated drum sample originally recorded for use with 1983's "Pipeline" is utilised sporadically throughout "Sweetest Perfection".			✖
	Sample sources
	Sample	Source	Status	Notes	Audio
	Guitar elements	Fleetwood Mac - "Black Magic Woman" - 29 March 1968	Confirmed	A manipulated, reversed, looping section of audio derived from "Black Magic Woman" by Fleetwood Mac is audible throughout the verse sections of "Sweetest Perfection.	✖
	Drum elements, snare drum	Akai - S1000 MIDI Stereo Digital Sampler - SL601 SAMBA SET - SN-HI3 and S1000 - SL602 AMBIENCE SET - SN HIGATE - June 1988	Confirmed	A manipulated, processed composite snare drum sound comprised of samples derived from the Akai Akai S1000 diskettes SL601 "Samba Set" and SL602 "Ambience Set" is utilised throughout "Sweetest Perfection". Notably, this composite snare sound would also see use sporadically throughout "Personal Jesus" and "Policy Of Truth".	✖

Live performances

Main article: Available recordings of "Sweetest Perfection"

Main article: List of dates where "Sweetest Perfection" was played

Trivia

• 'Sweetest Perfection' has been covered by Fourplay String Quartet (1998).