At the time when I was really into the Cure, it was “Pictures Of You”, and maybe “A Strange Day” for a while, and after that “Charlotte Sometimes” for ages, which were my absolute favourites — “Just Like Heaven” was up there as well, but I think that probably it wasn’t ponderous or gloomy enough for me to really think of it as an absolute fave back then. Well, our tastes change and we move on (even if some of us still have Robert Smith posters on our bedroom walls), and the ways in which we hear these old songs develop layers upon layers — I guess this is part of what they call growing up — and the upshot, in re the Cure at any rate, is that it is “Just Like Heaven” that’s wound up being my favourite of theirs, and, in a lot of ways, as such it’s come to stand for their back catalogue as a whole, both on this list and more broadly in the way I think about song and band.
There are so many reasons to love the song, but if I had to fix on just one, it’d be the way it starts — drums, guitars, more guitars, synths, still more guitars, and then Smith’s entry: “Show me show me show me how you do that trick!” and everything we love about the Cure is right there and perfect. Then again, the sparkling, dainty little electric piano solo about two-thirds of the way through is utterly fab, as well. Plus, the lyrics are, unexpectedly, still great. And did I mention that it’s my favourite Cure song?
