Oh dear gracious! Someone send in the rescue squad! Fangirl down! I repeat. FANGIRL DOWN!
Okay, so this isn’t the way I usually start off a Tune of the Week post nor is it the usual day I publish such a post but you know what? It’s not every day my ultimate bias and his bias wrecking buddy come together as a sub-unit to kill this rather vulnerable zombie fangirl. So you’ll just have to excuse me as I attempt to write something that doesn’t turn into complete and utter gibberish. I’ll warn you now, I make no promises.
So it’s been about an hour (or so… these things do take time to write) since VIXX’s new sub-unit, LR, released the video for the title track of their debut album Beautiful Liar and OH HOLY FLIP! I’m already a gonner! Honestly, I don’t know how anyone could watch the video for “Beautiful Liar” without dying but that’s probably only because I myself have already died and I am actually writing this post from the grave.
But before I get into the video can we just take a second to appreciate the song itself, because seriously, this song is just gorgeous. It’s dramatic and melancholy and so full of all the raw emotions you’d expect from something written by Leo and Ravi… It’s got Leo’s dark drama and Ravi’s emotional flare and together it just works on so many levels. Personally, I think it’s musical perfection.
When the teasers for “Beautiful Liar” first came out, I was really hoping for something of a cross between Lyn x Leo’s “Blossom Tears” and Ravi x Hyuk’s “Memory” and I think it comes pretty darn close. There’s something magical about the combination of Leo’s clean, angelic voice and Ravi’s deeper, gruffer undertones… The two put so much emotion into their singing and/or rapping that you can’t help but be moved, in this case, to tears.
Honestly, the song itself is enough to send me to fangirl heaven but then we have the video to go along with it and I just… I don’t even… How can a fangirl deal with so much perfection all in one 4.5 minute video? I don’t even know. What I do know is I’ve watched this video more times than I can count and I still can’t get through it without squeeing. Loudly.
We all know I’m a sucker for anything that’s dark and emotional and angsty so right off the bat my heart was tap dancing in my chest because everything about this video screams dark and emotional and angsty. And then there’s Leo, sitting there, all dark and gorgeous and barefoot (which, in my book, equates vulnerability and that just kills me) and then there’s Ravi who, at first glace seems to be light and gorgeous, but then you realize he’s covered in tattoos (which only make him more gorgeous) and upon closer inspection you find those tattoos have a darker meaning and suddenly this creature of gorgeous light begins to look more like a beautiful creature of darkness and… (Pardon me for just one teensie second… I’m having a moment… *SWOON*)
Okay, so maybe I’m reading too much into Ravi’s tattoos and the whole symbolism I see stemming from them but hey, everyone’s entitled to their own interpretation of things and the way I see it, Ravi’s portraying the angel of death and Leo’s girl was supposed to be Ravi’s target but Leo’s decided to take him on, willingly becoming Ravi’s next victim so that his girl can go on to live a happy, normal life. In my mind it makes perfect sense and seems to be exactly what Leo would do for the woman he loved so I’m just gonna go with it.
I suppose you could also see Leo and Ravi as two sides of the same person, the side that wants to hold on and the side that wants to let go… The side that wants to heal and the side that wants to wallow in self-loathing… In all honesty, there are so many roles you could give to these two, the point is, there are always two sides to every story and you have to decide whether these sides will battle with each other for all of eternity or if they’ll someday come to reconcile. It’s a difficult decision to make and one that will inevitably leave scars but if you ask me scars are proof that you lived and that’s better than never living (or loving) at all.
But enough of my philosophical rambling! I could literally sit here for hours and talk about all the wonders of this Leo x Ravi sub-unit and how amazing I think “Beautiful Liar” is but that would get boring and no one would ever bother to read my ramblings so I’m just gonna stop here. Needless to say, I’m completely in love with this song and I’m dying to get my hands on a copy of the album. (Oh why do I have to live half a world away??? These painful lessons in patience as I wait for albums to travel half-way around the world get awfully old!) Of course what I really want to know is what you think of VIXX’s first sub-unit so be sure to let me know what you’re thinking by leaving me a comment below!