My Top 1000 Songs #618: Just Like Heaven

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Yeah, this one feels kinda boring to talk about. Sure, The Cure's "Just Like Heaven," from 1987's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, is pretty much the perfect mid-80s pop song. Not too dissimilar from the previously-covered "In Between Days," inhabiting the same space where Robert Smith casts off the dourness of his darker deep cuts and magically arrives at the sort of catchy hook everyone feels compelled to bop along with regardless of their own personal taste.

But after what I've gotta say was an interesting week or so of varied picks--Alice Cooper's wacky new wave excursion, the Lemon Pipers' light but wonderful bubblegum, Animal Collective's entrancing experimentation--"Just Like Heaven" feels just sorta, well... obvious. Like... yes, of course we need to drop "Just Like Heaven" in here somewhere. 

Then again, to come up with a single that is so obviously, undeniably a great pop song... yeah, that's quite a gift.

Live in the studio, 2004:

Outstanding (if intermittently scary) Dinosaur Jr. cover (and great video):

The Watson Twins turn it into an old-fashioned torch song: