I love songs that sound happy but are actually sad, à la The Smiths or Fall Out Boy. But I think I found the happiest sad song ever: “Just Like Heaven” by The Cure. I can’t stop thinking about it. Here’s the music video:

Sounds like a happy love song, right? WRONG.

I’ve been listening to this song fairly regularly for years, and only yesterday did I actually take a good look at the lyrics for the first time. In the first two verses, Robert Smith sings happily about a girl he loves, saying “you’re just like a dream.” Wow, that’s so sweet. Too bad that’s all she is. Here’s the third verse:

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone, alone, alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved and drowned her deep inside of me

I love this so much. Robert Smith lures us in with wistful, romantic lyrics, only to reveal at the very end that the whole thing was a dream. It never really happened. Then you, the listener, are just sitting there like, “What just happened?” He took the happy-sad song to a whole new level with this track. It isn’t the typical formula of happy music and sad lyrics. The lyrics start off happy and then immediately descend into existentialist depression. I love the song even more now because of this revelation, and I wanted to share it with the world.

Helena