Mi último ex era una IA disfrazada: suspicions with a chip

Me estoy quedando flipada (I'm totally gobsmacked). That's how the lyrics react when the penny drops, and that's how anyone hearing it for the first time reacts. Because Mi último ex era una IA disfrazada (My Last Ex Was an AI in Disguise) starts from an absurd idea that, the more you think about it, the more sense it makes.

The reasoning has crushing logic. Better to create an artificial boyfriend, the song proposes. Why? Because he'll always tell you the truth, answer you sincerely and never cheat on you. So far, all advantages. The only problem is what he can never give you: kisses, hugs and great sex. I love that third item slipped into the list as casually as anything, because it breaks the household-appliance-advert tone and brings it back to real life.

The betrayal chip

And then comes the twist. If a real boyfriend lies and cheats, and an artificial one doesn't, what exactly was the last one? The lyrics' conclusion is pure farce: he must have been a machine, but with a faulty part. It was precisely his betrayal chip that failed, and at some point they swapped the part. I think it's a brilliant way to laugh at disillusion. Instead of calling the ex a liar, he's accused of being a badly assembled device.

The structure helps the joke. The sentences are broken into single words, as if each idea were being processed slowly, with the cadence of someone explaining the obvious to someone who doesn't get it. And in the final stretch, the acronym in the title stretches into a very long cry that has a lot of copla and a lot of courtyard scandal about it.

This song is for anyone who has come out of a relationship wondering whether there was a flesh-and-blood person on the other side. For anyone who misses the kisses but not the lies. For anyone who has thought, half joking and half serious, that they'd be better off with a robot.

Put it on at a dinner with friends swapping their romantic disasters. You'll laugh, and maybe one of them will start to suspect her own ex.

Mind you, if what you're after is hugs, the lyrics already warn you: those don't come as standard.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify