Album: Eye
Year: 1990
. . .
While Eye was mostly filled with longish and downbeat-sounding songs, there was at least one seemingly upbeat tune, “Beautiful Girl,” which is just basically a strummy acoustic guitar song, like you’d imagine a busker somewhere singing while wandering around a BART station.
I’m in love with a beautiful girl
Yes I’m in love with a beautiful girl
Well I thought I knew all about everything
But I’m in love with a beautiful girl
What I love about “Beautiful Girl” is that it takes all of the hope and optimism about the first flash of falling in love, and ties it to the tiniest bit of doubt. “I though I knew all about everything” goes directly to the brain-rearranging that happens in that first flash, because even though admits that he was wrong about knowing all about everything, he never bothers to tell us what he didn’t know. Instead, he frets about her perspective.
And she’s in love with a wonderful guy
Yes, she’s in love with a wonderful guy
Well I hope she’s in love with whom I think she’s in love
I’m in love with a beautiful girlI’m a charming and dangerous guy
Yes, I’m a charming and dangerous guy
If you don’t expect too much it’s alright
I’m in love with a beautiful girl
Yes, I’m in love with a beautiful girl
Like I said, “Beautiful Girl” is pretty simple musically — there are no other instruments outside of a single acoustic guitar — but vocally, Robyn plays with the overdubs a lot, adding and subtracting harmonies as he sees fit, so it’s always changing, matching the tension between his optimism and doubt.
“Beautiful Girl”
“Beautiful Girl” Official Video
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