Just Like Heaven

Just Like Heaven is Robert Smith at his most paradoxically joyful — a man constitutionally drawn to darkness writing the purest pop song of his career, inspired by a visit to a clifftop with his girlfriend (later wife) Mary Poole.

The production by David Allen gives the song an airiness the band's heavier records couldn't achieve — Simon Gallup's bass melodic and prominent, Boris Williams's drumming more dance-inclined than the band's usual lockstep. Smith's guitar melody is one of the most recognizable in alternative pop history.

Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me showed The Cure's range in a single record: from the crushing weight of The Same Deep Water as You to this, eleven songs apart. Very few bands could hold that distance.