Just Like Heaven -

Whether you know it as the soundtrack to your first kiss or the background to your first heartbreak, The Cure gave us a gift. They proved that the most beautiful pop music isn’t about happy endings. It’s about the terrifying, beautiful risk of loving someone despite the fact that it might disappear.

And perhaps most famously, the 2005 film adaptation (starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo) used the song as its emotional anchor. In the film, a man visits the spot where he proposed to his late wife. The song plays. You cannot hear the opening riff without picturing that specific ache of loss. Just Like Heaven is a paradox. It makes you want to spin around in the sunshine, but it also makes you want to cry in the dark. It captures the cruel truth about happiness: You never appreciate heaven until you are standing outside looking in. Just Like Heaven

“Why can’t I laugh without crying? / Why can’t I sleep without dreaming?” Whether you know it as the soundtrack to

Recommended Listening: The Cure – Just Like Heaven (Original) + Dinosaur Jr. – Just Like Heaven (Cover) And perhaps most famously, the 2005 film adaptation

So turn it up loud. Dance to it. Cry to it. But whatever you do, don’t listen to it alone on a beach at sunset. You might not recover.