Music
Plus One
The 11 best songs by The Cure
To celebrate their forthcoming slew of 2026 headline dates, we rank the 11 best tracks from one of the world’s most influential rock bands
I’ll always remember the first time I encountered the Cure. It was 1992 and music videos were still on TV. Between dedicated music channels such as MTV and VH1, and shows like Top of the Pops and The Word, music videos were how many nineties teens (myself included) discovered and consumed artists – and, the Cure (with Tim Pope) made a lot of very cool music videos.
Of course, it was ‘Friday, I’m in Love’ that opened the gateway into my voyage of discovery – spoiler alert: it’s not been included in this Plus One, sorry to those I offend by revealing this – and from that giddy, colourful music video, an eleven year-old girl (with a penchant for gloom) became a Cure fan. And let’s face it, there are so many Cure phases, legacies and songs to get lost in. Ranking the tracks wasn’t easy, at all. You could almost write a Cure song about it.
Formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith and drummer Lol Tolhurst, the Cure have had many line-up shifts – however, it’s Smith that’s remained ever constant, an iconic frontman with wild hair, thick eyeliner and a gift for writing incredible, life-changing songs.
Post-punk. Alt-rock. Goth-pop. These are just some of the genres that have been levelled at the Cure over the years, yet somehow they are still, over four decades later, completely undefinable.
To celebrate their forthcoming 2026 live shows, here are eleven of the Cure’s very best songs, ranked…
11. ‘The Caterpillar’
(The Top, 1984)
Spending seven weeks in the UK singles chart, the delightfully psychy ‘The Caterpillar’ crunches and gurns its way into this the Cure Plus One with a serenade of castanets and screeching strings. On paper, the track would appear calamitous and chaotic, yet in true Smith style, the vocal line adds a sweetly sad folkiness to this otherwise jarring cacophony of sounds. Pure genius.
10. ‘Jumping Someone Else’s Train’
(single, 1979)
There is something distinctly ska-like about standalone single ‘Jumping Someone Else’s Train’, and this is not by accident (of course, nothing Smith does is by accident). A very clear dig at the musical bandwagoning so prevalent in the industry during the late seventies, ‘Jumping Else’s Train’ nevertheless is a great guitar track that bops along like it’s wearing pixie boots and glitter tights at your local indie night.
9. ‘Lovesong’
(Disintegration, 1989)
Probably one of the most bittersweet and beautiful songs ever written, ‘Lovesong’ does exactly what it says on the tin. Years ago, this writer remembers hearing a young woman covering ‘Lovesong’, busking on the main drag of Dublin’s chaotic Temple Bar. Despite the noise – Americans skulling pints of Guinness and the relentless line of hen parties screeching across the cobbles – her voice, sweet, with an edge of an eastern European accent (“however far away, I will always love you”) brought the square to a hushed standstill. I’ll never forget it. Proof that there’s so much power in the simplest of things, and the simplest of declarations.
8. ‘A Night Like This’
(The Head On The Door, 1985)
Arguably, it was the Cure’s sixth studio album The Head On The Door that helped them break America, and track 8 – the gorgeously gut-wrenching ‘A Night Like This’ – would have definitely been up there for stateside teens digging the band’s new, slightly poppier sound. As per, it has Smith’s usual heart-wrung lines of regret and self-reflection, plus some pretty sexy sax solos, which we’re always here for.
7. ‘Close To Me’
(The Head On The Door, 1985)
Oh, those handclaps. Of course, it could only be ‘Close To Me’ the gloriously catchy and claustrophobic track that saw the band drowning in a wardrobe off Beachy Head (as per Tim Pope’s now iconic music video). Despite the track’s slightly dark connotations, it’s always great to sashay about to, especially late at night in your bare feet with a glass of wine.
6. ‘One Hundred Years’
(Pornography, 1982)
Opening a song with a line like “doesn’t matter if we all die” is pretty punchy, but, this is the Cure, and they can pretty much do whatever they like. The first track on fourth studio album Pornography – where ‘a lot of drugs’ were allegedly taken during recording sessions – the ferocious ‘One Hundred Years’ has become something of a fan favourite. Yes, it’s uncomfortable. Yes, it pushes into all the soft parts of your body with clammy fingers. Yes, it’s absolutely astonishing.
5. ‘Pictures Of You’
(Disintegration, 1989)
Inspired by rescued pictures of Smith’s wife after a house fire, ‘Pictures Of You’ is another slow burn of a Cure song, with a lengthy intro and some classically soulful Smith vocal shenanigans. Yes, ‘Pictures Of You’ soundtracks the indie rom-com that lives rent-free in my head, and one day, I’ll write the end scene where the lovers reconnect over scratched polaroids at a busy dive bar while it plays on the jukebox. Roll credits.
4. ‘Just Like Heaven’
(Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, 1987)
Indie rom-com you say? Well, here’s another banger for the soundtrack. A delectable slice of pure jangly pop with Smith’s characteristic tones of yearning and love, ‘Just Like Heaven’ serves serious melody alongside a gorgeously uplifting piano solo that sounds like pure sunshine. If ‘Lovesong’ is the declaration, ‘Just Like Heaven’ is the deep breath before the plunge. Giddy and breathless, this is what falling in love sounds like.
3. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’
(single, 1979)
If there ever was a song to define a band and its legacy, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ would 100% be it for The Cure. The track that helped generations of emotionally repressed lads catch some feels, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ has stood the test of time, down to its clever drum hooks, catchy riffage and smart lyrics. It’s tidy. It’s slick. It still sounds f*cking great on a pub dance floor. It so very nearly took top billing but…
2. ‘In Between Days’
(The Head On The Door, 1985)
‘In Between Days’ captures everything we adore about the Cure in three short minutes. Unrequited and requited love. Being overwhelmingly happy yet sweetly sad. Feeling old while still in the bloom of youth. In the deepest, darkest moments, flickers of light will only shine brighter, and ‘In Between Days’ wraps this affirmation up in the key of A Major. Jubilant yet forlorn, this is the Cure doing what they do best.
1. ‘A Forest’
(Seventeen Seconds, 1980)
Pure moody, cosmic perfection, ‘A Forest’ was always going to take top spot, simply because it’s a) a fan favourite – the Cure have played it live over 1,000 times – and b) it’s representative of a band on the cusp of ‘becoming’. While ‘A Forest’ doesn’t have any of the poppy sensibilities that entranced this writer as an eleven-year-old, I’ve since gone on to admire its haunted beauty, the strange otherness that sets it apart from the rest of the Cure’s back catalogue. There’s something of Joy Division, something of cautionary folk songs, something that you can never quite put your finger on – that’s what makes ‘A Forest’ so brilliant. Like the Cure, it defies distinction. A deserving winner.
