‘Just Like Heaven’: How The Cure perfectly captured the dizzying heights of love
There are plenty of iconic love stories in the world of music, but few can hold a candle to the one shared by Robert Smith and Mary Poole.
Sure, some others may have fireworks and explosions of drama, but the Smiths have shared something few can boast: a whole life together, filled with enduring love. And nothing captures that bond quite like the sweetness of ‘Just Like Heaven’.
The pair are the definition of childhood sweethearts. They met at 14, and that was basically it—from that day forward, the duo has been inseparable, navigating their teens together. Mary was there when Robert started The Cure; she supported him through that. He supported her through her stint as a model and her career as a nurse, and in 1988, they married.
If you’re ever looking for examples of a man head over heels in love, simply pull up any interview of Smith talking about his wife. “Mary means so incomprehensibly much to me,” he said once, “I actually don’t think she has ever realised how dependent I’ve been on her during all these years we’ve been together”.
He speaks of her as his saviour, his best friend, his biggest inspiration, and throughout the entirety of The Cure’s discography, every love song is dedicated to her. However, there is one gem where the feeling is so palpable it is as though you’re third-wheeling on a dizzying date.
‘Just Like Heaven’ is an insanely beautiful song to have dedicated to you as a testament to your love. “You’re just like a dream,” Smith repeats over and over for his long-term partner, declaring her “just like heaven”. The chords themselves seem tinged with romantic reverie in a manner that defies typical musicological analysis.
Some of it is obvious, though. When Smith poetically sings, “Dreamed of all the different ways / I had to make her glow”, it becomes clear that this is a love song about merely wanting to make his partner as happy as she makes him, about being overcome with love and adoration and almost blown away by the sheer beauty of his feelings for her on every level, from her physical presence to her spirit.
But in interviews, Smith has alluded to this actually being a way more personal song than that, specifically inspired by a particular day the two spent together. “It was something that happened on Beachy Head, on the south coast of England,” he told Blender, “The song is about hyper-ventilating—kissing and fainting to the floor.” Giving no more details than that, he simply noted of the music video, “Mary dances with me in the video because she was the girl, so it had to be her”.
Why does ‘Just Like Heaven’ sound so much like love?
In these comments, and in the references towards being at a sort of cliff edge like they were on that day, singing “Spinning on that dizzy edge”, he makes it clear that this is a song devoted specifically to Mary and a moment with her. The music is simplistic in a way, looking to ride along the wave of Smith’s urgent vocals. These familiar chords, enhanced by dreamy production and the passion of the song, create an accessible world where Smith’s love feels infectious.
In essence, it doesn’t try to do too much musically. The power comes from Smith racing just a fraction ahead of the melody, a literal inference of falling head over heels. He’s ahead of the song, picturing forever. The propulsive rhythm grabs your hand and drags you along with it, as though you’re Mary herself.
He even ensured that was true of the recording, too. When it came to putting the tracks down for this song’s home album, Smith called his wife into the room. “I asked Mary to sit in the studio when I was singing some of the songs, and it was very strange actually singing to her, which I’d never done before,” he said, bringing her physical presence onto the track as well as just her emotional influence and the inspiration her love brings to his life.
