Wrapped Up In Chains

Guido featuring Aarya “Beautiful Complication”

I have a slightly irrational distaste for titles like “Beautiful Complication.” It’s the rhythm as much as the sentiment — “Beautiful Liar,” “Beautiful Stranger,” “Brilliant Disguise,” “Brilliant Mistake,” etc. It’s always such a stilted contrast, and it just looks and sounds ugly and off-puttingly self-satisfied to me. To get into this song, you have to buy into that “lovely pain-in-the-ass” premise, but it’s worth it. At its core, this is pretty standard stuff for modern R&B, but Guido’s track is knocked off balance just enough to seem genuinely menacing, which has a way of making Aarya’s vocal performance come off as more desperate and imperiled that it might otherwise. It’s a song about being attracted to a fucked-up guy who treats you poorly, and it’s very effective in getting across the excitement and allure of this dramatic scenario, but also a very real sense of emotional and physical danger. But you know, as the title suggests, it’s a willful thing, and the awareness of the self-destructive act is the main point of the song.

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