'Life is Beautiful': A Song Analysis

If Juice WRLD’s “999” was an active, desperate attempt to invert pain, Gustav “Lil Peep” Åhr’s work was a baptism in it. Peep pioneered a different, perhaps more passive vulnerability. He didn’t just confess his pain—he curated it, styled it, and wore it as a uniform: pink-on-black, sullen and open-hearted. His music gave a generation permission to be sad, to embrace being a “crybaby,” and to find strange, communal comfort in the abyss. But nowhere in his catalog is that abyss as bleakly and sarcastically illuminated as in his posthumously released track “Life is Beautiful.”

The song is a masterpiece of brutal, unblinking irony. Originally written in 2015, years before his death, it’s not a late-stage lament but a foundational document of his worldview. Its power lies in its title—a hollow mantra he systematically dismantles, verse by verse. The production, a clean, almost upbeat guitar loop, acts as a saccharine mask for the lyrical horror beneath. It’s a song that forces listeners into profound cognitive dissonance, repeating “Isn’t life beautiful?” while holding their faces to the flame of human suffering.

Peep begins his argument not with esoteric personal pain, but with a litany of universal, inescapable miseries. He paints vignettes that are all the more terrifying for their mundanity: the pain of labor (“Workin’ every day, now you bleedin’ through your cuticles”), the pain of social isolation (“You were not invited ‘cause you’re nothin’ like the usual”), and the awkward pain of performative grief (“Tryna keep it cool at your grandfather’s funeral”). This tapestry of suffering is designed to be relatable, to lull listeners into agreement before he delivers his most profound blows.

The vignettes grow darker, escalating from social anxiety to terminal illness (“Stuck inside a hospital… Doctor walks in and he tells you that it’s terminal”). Then, in the song’s most incisive moment, he turns from personal tragedy to systemic injustice: “They’ll kill your little brother and then tell you he’s a criminal… Welcome to America, that type of shit is typical.” The mask of “beauty” is now fully revealed as a tool of oppression, a lie told to placate those being crushed by the system. The refrain “Isn’t life beautiful?” is no longer a question—it’s an accusation.

In the final verses, the ironic distance collapses entirely. The sarcasm sours as he breaks the pattern, asking “Isn’t life horrible?” and “Isn’t life comical?” before delivering a bleakly practical one-liner on death: “When I die, I’ll pack my bags, move somewhere more affordable.” This is the song’s true, vulnerable core. The final verse is a desperate, raw plea, a voice stripped of all ironic armor: “if I tried suicide, would you stop me? / Would you help me get a grip or would you drop me?” The song, which began as a broad critique of the world, ends as a terrified, personal question. The answer he provides himself is the final, devastating subversion of the song’s title: “I think I’ma die alone inside my room.”

I know that it hurts sometimes, but it's beautiful
Working every day, now you're bleeding through your cuticles
Passing through a portal as you're sittin' in your cubicle
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful
Tryna keep your cool at your grandfather's funeral
Finding out eventually the feeling wasn't mutual
You were not invited 'cause you're nothing like the usual
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful

You wanna see your friends, but you're stuck inside a hospital
Doctor walks in and he tells you that it's terminal
Tumor in your brain and they're sayin' it's inoperable
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful
They'll kill your little brother and they'll tell you he's a criminal
They'll fucking kill you too, so you better not get physical
Welcome to America, the type of shit is typical
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful

Wake up in the morning, now you're doing the impossible
Find out what's important, now you're feeling philosophical
When I die, I'll pack my bags, move somewhere more affordable
Isn't life horrible? I think that life is horrible
You think she's adorable, she thinks that you're intolerable
You think you can do it, but your chances are improbable
Once you feel unstoppable, you run into an obstacle
Isn't life comical? I think that life is comical

And if you ever need a friend then you got me
And in the end, when I die, would you watch me?
And if I try suicide, would you stop me?
Would you help me get a grip or would you drop me?
Run away, make friends with the moon
Why you trippin'? You'll be with your friends soon
There comes a time, everybody meets the same fate
I think I'ma die alone inside my room

Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful
Isn't life beautiful? I think that life is beautiful