As a prequel to my list of songs that saved my life, I will dedicate a list of five, of my all-time favourite band.

The Cure

Immediately NAÏVE people will disregard The Cure as being emo, whiney and even depressing. Well, you are the people that think ______ of Top 40 has “deep, inspirational lyrics.”

The Cure makes you feel their music. They create the kind of songs that give you chills over and over. Songs you can connect to. Songs you can always turn to when life has caught you on the flipside.

I don’t think there is another musician who compares to the Cure’s front man Robert Smith. Every song of his reminds me of a certain time of my life. His lyrics help me keep myself together, and keep everything in life in its right place. There is not a single Cure song that doesn’t’t deeply resonate with me. The Cure can be labeled as Goth-Rock, British New Wave, Post-Punk, New Romantics, Pre-Alternative, but I believe a one-word-description fits: perfection.

1. Love Song changed my life. Epic love stories weren’t meant to be comprehended, but complicated. The Cure’s Love Song explores the complicity and beauty of love identify with every single word; it is amazing to know that someone else, somewhere in time identified with every emotion I was feeling at that exact time. It’s in between the words, lyrics and moments where the true depth of belief anchors the heart. What once was will always be. That’s what Love Song preaches, and reinforces. True love that only mends never breaks. Love Song details the classic expression of the love that happens between two humans, and the unbreakable bond love creates, “however far away I will always love you”. Love is the power that can save your life, “you make me feel like I am free again,” it allows for you to escape whatever troubles you and to “feel like (you) are whole again”. Though it may carry a tone of sadness, Love Song is one of the most inspirational, uplifting songs I have ever been graced with listening to. It is the kind of song that makes me excited to be alive. Love! What a wonder! Time and changes may occur, but Love Song carries the depth of “I will always love you…” The mind of Robert Smith created such an epic, beautiful love story that enchants you. The lyrics make you feel inspired, and excited for what is yet to come. There’s nothing greater than having a sense of hope for things that have yet to pass. Love Song fills you with warmth that somewhere out there someone loves you so intensely and fiercely that they can identify with every word in this song. It’s marvelous to know that someone believes in you. It’s the best feeling I can think of. Love Song combines all these great feelings and leaves you filled with love, hope and faith.  Love Song is pure lyrical and musical euphoria; it is the kind of song that inspires you to live your life with your heart open to the beauty that is love. Whether, you are feeling loved or lonely, Love Song speaks to you; it tugs at the innermost core of your heart and makes you feel alive.

2. Pictures of You – The past and the future are two sides of the same coin. Your past shapes your future. The person you were, what you do—it all matters. You can’t erase your history. You carry it with you. You love and you lose. A perfect ode between the battle between your head and your heart, memories and reality.

3. The Same Deep Water As You – I can’t explain it. You have to listen, and you have to feel it. To me, this song is about being completely alone. No one is in the same deep water as you. This song serves as a metaphor for me for my fight with cancer. It’s so dark, so scary, and so…so…alone. So much solitude. When I feel alone in my fight, in my life—I listen to this song. I know someone else has felt exactly the same, and bond of loneliness and isolation comforts me. This is a song I listen to when I am manic. When I am overwhelmed with anxiety….this is my jam. The darkness takes away my own darkness and the light comes backs in.

4. Where The Birds Always Sing — To fill your heart with warmth and hope. To make you feel something, to renew a sense of hope that you had thought lost. One of the most inspiring feelings in the world is when the sun is warm for the first time after a long cold winter, and everything around you just seems to be glowing. Nothing feels better than coming out of a dark place into the light. I used to think this feeling could only be experienced when the last bit of snow melts away in the springtime, I was proven wrong when I heard this song for the first time two days before one of the best friends I have ever connected with left this world.  It is beautiful, sad, and hopeful—it is everything. It is grief, summed up into a three-minute-and-fifty-second song. Every emotion, every question—this song, is grief.  Navigating through grief. Light and dark. The Birds Always Sing…

5. Just Like Heaven–This song just makes you happy. The lyrics in this song almost make you feel you like have been reborn and are looking at the world with a new set of eyes. You are given a new taste for life. Beauty and innocence return to a world that is often marred by tragedy. This is just what kind of song the world needs. An anthem for hope and appreciation for the life we have been given. Whether, you are feeling loved or lonely, this song speaks to you; it tugs at the innermost core of your heart and makes you feel alive.Honorable mentions: The Last Day of Summer, Bloodflowers, Lullaby, To Wish Impossible Things, Mint Car, Friday I’m In Love With You—and EVERYTHING on 1989’s Disintegration.