Beautiful Things

"Beautiful Things" is a deeply personal and emotional exploration of the duality of love and fear. The song's central meaning revolves around the intense anxiety that can accompany profound happiness and gratitude. Benson Boone articulates the universal human experience of finding something—or someone—so precious that the fear of losing them becomes a powerful, almost overwhelming force. The lyrics narrate a journey from a difficult past ("the last four cold Decembers") to a present filled with blessings: a loving relationship, family connection, and inner peace. However, this joy is not simple; it's juxtaposed with a spiritual plea and a deep-seated vulnerability. The song is essentially a prayer, an appeal to God to not take away the "beautiful things" he has been given. This highlights a theme of faith and the recognition of life's fragility, where happiness feels like a gift that could be rescinded at any moment. It captures the internal conflict of trying to live in and appreciate a happy moment while being haunted by the possibility of its end.

The song begins with a reflection on a period of hardship, acknowledging that after some difficult times, things have finally taken a turn for the better. The narrator has found stability and joy; he's reconnected with his family, seeing them regularly, and more importantly, he has found a profound love with a woman his parents adore. This relationship brings a sense of peace and rightness to his life. He finds himself in a state of gratitude, thanking God for sending this person his way.

However, this newfound happiness is immediately shadowed by a deep-seated fear. He is acutely aware of the transient nature of blessings, recognizing that the same divine power that gives can also take away. This thought plants a seed of anxiety. Every night, as he holds his partner, he yearns to become accustomed to this feeling of love and security, but the fear of losing her is overwhelming. He confesses that there is no one more terrified than a man who has something precious to lose.

This anxiety builds into the song's emotional core, a desperate and powerful plea. He cries out to God, begging for this love and happiness not to be taken from him. The "beautiful things" he has finally acquired—peace, love, a meaningful connection—are things he now clings to with a desperate grip. It's a raw, almost primal scream of wanting and needing, a direct appeal to a higher power to preserve his joy.

In a moment of self-awareness, the narrator questions his own mindset. He wonders why, when everything in his life is finally good and great, he spends his time consumed with the fear of it all disappearing. He acknowledges that he has enough—he has peace and love—yet this knowledge doesn't stop him from staying up all night, tormented by the thought that he might lose everything. The stability he has found feels fragile, and the fear of its collapse is a constant, nagging presence. This internal conflict between gratitude for the present and anxiety about the future drives the emotional narrative, culminating again in that same desperate, shouted prayer to hold onto the beautiful things in his life.

"Beautiful Things" was released on January 19, 2024, as the lead single from Benson Boone's debut studio album, Fireworks & Rollerblades. The song was co-written by Boone, Jack LaFrantz, and Evan Blair, with Blair also handling production. The inspiration for the song came from a new relationship Boone had just entered after moving to Los Angeles. He described it as the first time in his life he felt genuinely terrified to lose someone, as he felt he had no control over the outcome of the relationship. The song's creation was unique; it started as two separate ideas. One night, unable to sleep, Boone went to his grandmother's old piano and wrote the melodies. He took these ideas into a studio session the next day, and it was his co-writer, Jack LaFrantz, who suggested combining the mellow verse idea with the powerful chorus idea into a single track. Boone has mentioned that the process of figuring out the song's structure took about three weeks, as they debated how to best integrate the contrasting sections. Before its official release, Boone teased the song extensively on TikTok, where clips amassed over 130 million views, building significant anticipation.

The song's structure is built on a contrast between its sections. The verses have a more relaxed, conversational rhythm, following a simple rhyme scheme that feels natural and narrative-driven. The tempo is slower in the verses, contributing to the gentle, reflective mood. The song's time signature is 12/8, which gives it a flowing, triplet-based feel, often found in ballads. As the song transitions into the pre-chorus and chorus, the tempo and rhythmic intensity increase dramatically. The steady acoustic plucking gives way to a driving rock beat with heavy drums and a powerful, anthemic feel. This rhythmic shift is crucial to the song's emotional impact, physically manifesting the anxiety and desperation described in the lyrics. The rhyme scheme remains relatively simple throughout, focusing on clear, impactful rhymes (e.g., "stay"/"take"/"away") that make the chorus memorable and chantable, enhancing its quality as a powerful, cathartic release.

"Beautiful Things" is notable for its dramatic use of dynamics, creating a powerful emotional arc. The song begins with a soft, minimalist arrangement featuring just Boone's gentle vocals and an acoustic guitar, drawing the listener into an intimate, vulnerable space. As the song progresses to the pre-chorus and chorus, it employs a massive crescendo, erupting into a full-blown rock anthem with powerful drums, bass, and layered, raspy vocals. This shift from a gentle ballad to a rock outcry is the song's defining stylistic feature, mirroring the lyrical shift from quiet gratitude to desperate pleading. Boone's vocal delivery is key; he moves from a soft, mixed falsetto in the verses to a full-throated, strained, and emotive belt in the chorus, leaping up an octave to convey raw intensity. The structure follows a fairly standard verse-chorus format but uses repetition and layering to build momentum, with the second verse having a fuller instrumentation than the first, sustaining the energy after the initial chorus explosion. The post-chorus features nonsensical, impassioned vocal breaks, which serve to heighten the emotional peak where words fail.

"Beautiful Things" became a massive global hit, marking a major breakthrough for Benson Boone. Propelled by its viral success on TikTok, the song topped the charts in numerous countries, including Australia, Canada, the UK, and Germany, and peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number one on both the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts for multiple weeks. The song's success was immense, with IFPI naming it the biggest-selling global single of 2024. It has been certified multi-platinum in several countries, including five-times platinum in the US and eight-times platinum in Australia. Its cultural impact is tied to its relatability and emotional rawness, resonating with a wide audience who connect with its themes of love, fear, and faith. The song won accolades at the MTV Video Music Awards and earned Boone a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, where he also performed the track.

The core symbolism of the song lies in the titular phrase, "beautiful things." This doesn't refer to material possessions but encapsulates all the non-tangible blessings in the narrator's life: his romantic relationship, peace of mind, and connection with his family. These are the elements that have brought him out of a period of difficulty, making them precious and fragile. The song employs a powerful metaphor of a conversation or prayer with God, who is depicted as both a benevolent giver and a force that can take things away. This creates a sense of profound dependency and vulnerability, framing happiness not as a stable state but as a precious and temporary gift. The dynamic shift from the soft verses to the loud, raw chorus is itself a metaphor for the internal emotional landscape—the quiet appreciation of his blessings being suddenly overwhelmed by the loud, screaming fear of their potential loss. This stark contrast symbolizes the internal war between gratitude and anxiety.

The most significant recurring phrase is the song's title, "These beautiful things that I've got," which serves as the central lyrical motif. Its repetition in the explosive chorus anchors the song's core theme: the desperate plea to hold onto newfound happiness. The direct address to God, "I want you, I need you, oh God / Don't take," is another powerful recurring element. It functions as a desperate prayer and the emotional climax of the song, repeated to emphasize the depth of the narrator's fear and dependence. Musically, the song features a recurring melodic hook in the verses, which is initially presented gently. The melody of the pre-chorus is then reused and amplified in the main chorus, but an octave higher and with much greater intensity, creating a sense of escalation and linking the build-up to the explosive release. This structural choice makes the chorus feel both familiar and overwhelmingly powerful when it arrives.