"Perfect Places" is a song by New Zealand singer and songwriter Lorde. It was released on 1 June 2017 through Universal Music New Zealand as the second single, following "Green Light" (2017), from her second album, Melodrama (2017). Lorde co-wrote and co-produced the song with Jack Antonoff and Andrew Wyatt, with additional production from Frank Dukes. "Perfect Places" was described as an atmospheric electropop song that blends bass, synths and drum machine beats. In the lyrics, Lorde follows the conclusion of the "teenage party circuit" in Melodrama, wondering where her perfect places are.

The track has been received with acclaim by music critics, with many commending Lorde's songwriting. While it failed to chart in the United States, "Perfect Places" had minor chart placements in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. An accompanying music video for the song was directed by Grant Singer, who also filmed the visual for the album's lead single "Green Light", and premiered on Lorde's Vevo account on 3 August 2017. It shows the artist in various shots alone at the beach, in a restaurant and on a boat. For further promotion, Lorde performed "Perfect Places" live on television on several occasions.

When speaking to The New York Times about the song's composition, Lorde said that it "lived a million times." She added that both she and Jack Antonoff tried "different tempos, used different voicings, took it half time, made it weird and druggy," but nothing worked. One of their issues was how much depth there was to the song. Searching for a solution, Lorde thought of deleting its pre-chorus, and did so saying the track then "follow[ed] a much simpler trajectory." Despite this, they still had "not cracked the code."

As the pair was working on a hook, the idea of having a "mass of multi-tracked Lordes" came up. They proceeded to belt "out the words together beneath the main vocal like a choir of clones." During the recording, Lorde sang multiple takes and changed the sound by moving away or getting closer to the microphone in different parts. In post-production, her takes were layered on top of each other. The work of English singer Kate Bush served as an inspiration for a harmony in the second half of the song. The lyric "Now I don't know which way to go" was changed to "Now I can't stand to be alone" as the pair felt it was too "wishy-washy." On the track's release date, Lorde revealed that riding on the Brooklyn Bridge during the summer and sitting on the Uptown Manhattan subway in the heat, coupled with frequent flights to her residence in New Zealand, prompted her to write the song.

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