Mentes diabólicas, an anthem against hypocrisy with famous quotes

The world is a stage where we all act. The first line of Mentes diabólicas (Diabolical Minds) is in quotation marks, and not by chance: the song is built from famous sayings, ideas that have been circulating for centuries, and makes them live alongside a thoroughly streetwise chorus.

I love that clash. On one side, echoes of Shakespeare and the world as a stage. Of La Rochefoucauld and the idea that hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. Of the old Latin tag of man as a wolf to man. Iron masks, farces and lies that embrace at night. On the other side, the chorus, which has no time for philosophy: hypocrites, cynical people, miserable folk, shove your criticism up your arse.

That mix of library and bar counter is very much my way of writing. You can quote the classics and, in the next line, tell someone to get lost with the most castizo expression possible. Both things are true at the same time.

The weariness behind it is that of dealing with two-faced people. Under the sun we're all equal, says one verse, but in the shadows they disguise themselves, each with their role clearly marked in the farce. And there's a line I find especially beautiful: better the critics who show themselves honest. It's not against criticism; it's against cowardly criticism, the kind said behind your back.

The finish, your minds are diabolical, has something of Gothic theatre, of a soap-opera villain exposed at the end of the episode. And the word hypocrites, repeated over and over, sounds almost like the chorus of a Greek tragedy, as if the whole audience rose to its feet to accuse.

It's for when you've found out what they were saying about you behind your back. For the day after a dinner where everyone was smiling and now you know who wasn't sincere.

Play it loud, so whoever criticises from behind and smiles to your face can hear it from where they are.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify