The Ideal Copy is the fourth studio album by the English rock group Wire, released in April 1987 by Mute Records.

[4][5] One critic, Kirk Fillmore, further compared the electric bass's sound on the single "Ahead" to that of New Order's Peter Hook, though bassist Graham Lewis had played in such a style on previous Wire albums.

[6] Indeed, journalist Richard Grabel pointed out that "New Order and any number of other synths-and-guitars bands took cues from late-70s Wire," suggesting that "things [had] come full circle.

Graham Lewis, in a Creem interview, stated "the ideal copy" ultimately refers to DNA, "but Bruce [Gilbert] had a dream about it and decided we had to take that out of the song".

In addition to the eight album tracks, the compact disc and cassette configurations appended the Snakedrill EP in its entirety, along with three concert recordings.