Mi novio de Albacete: the gay couple of the year (or not)

We were the gay couple of the year. That's what the song says, and it repeats it so many times you start to suspect it wasn't all that. Mi novio de Albacete (My Boyfriend from Albacete) is a full-blown heartbreak comedy, with a traitor who travels five hours to leave a note and an ending I'm not going to spoil completely.

The structure is very simple and that's why it works so well. Each verse sets the two halves of the couple against each other with a quick comparison: you so buff, me tattooed; you so into fitness, me so handsome; me working and you doing your own thing. It's like a perfect-couple photo album coming apart page by page. And the same line appears in all of them, curt, like a slammed door: you've cheated on me.

Dating apps play a starring role. The boyfriend in question hasn't wasted any time and is already on Grindr and Wapo showing off what he shouldn't. The song says it rather more graphically, of course, because nothing is hidden here.

Five hours for a note

The chorus is what amuses me most. What a disaster with my boyfriend from Albacete. He travelled five hours to leave a note... which ended up in the toilet! That image has something of a sainete, an old-fashioned comedy of errors. So much effort for a written farewell, and the paper meets the fate it meets.

I like that the song doesn't turn tragic. There's pain, of course, because nobody wants to be cheated on, but it's handled with the humour of someone who has cried enough and now it's time to laugh. And the ending, with its warning to all about how easy the boyfriend from Albacete is, is pure small-town gossip turned into a moral.

Let nobody in Albacete take offence, the city isn't to blame. He could have been from anywhere, but rhymes rule and my boyfriend was from there.

I'd dedicate it to all of us who've had an Instagram-perfect couple that was a disaster on the inside. Listen to it with friends, on a night out for beers, and let everyone bring out their own boyfriend from Albacete.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify