The “Fifty Shades of Grey” Soundtrack Will See You Now
by Josh Rosenthal
Until I revisited it for its tenth anniversary, I almost forgot just how pleasurable the soundtrack to “Fifty Shades of Grey” is—especially when the film it was curated for, despite being a box office phenomenon in 2015, carries no current pop culture relevance.
While “Fifty Shades of Grey” as a viewing experience is a mess of absent chemistry and questionable eroticism, “Fifty Shades of Grey” as a listening experience is a rather confident and creative affair—proving that even the most dire movies can still produce some great music.
To understand the appeal of this album, you don't even have to look further than “Earned It” — the seductive and praise-filled lead single by the Weeknd that earned him both an undeniable radio hit and an Academy Award nomination.
It’s fun to reflect on “Earned It” as a distinct turning point in the Weeknd’s career from the anonymity behind his early mixtapes towards full-on stardom—especially as both “The Hills” and “Can’t Feel My Face” would top the Billboard Hot 100 chart just months later.
Lyrically and thematically, most of the album mirrors the fraught relationship at the center of the film. Beyoncé graces it with a subdued yet sweeping remix of “Crazy in Love,” while “Meet Me In The Middle” by Jessie Ware and Laura Welsh’s “Undiscovered” perfectly capture the uncertainty that comes from not being able to get close to your lover.
Another welcome quirk of the soundtrack is just how all over the place it is. Annie Lennox is the first voice you hear on the album with “I Put a Spell on You”, “Beast of Burden” by The Rolling Stones is randomly there, and there’s a baffling cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” by AWOLNATION that strains so hard to be sensual that it’s almost unsettling.
The highlight of the album, however, is easily “Love Me Like You Do”—a luxurious and towering ballad by Ellie Goulding that was clearly designed with IMAX screens in mind. Goulding does everything in her power to elevate this song to pop perfection, infusing its melodramatic conceit with a breathtaking amount of force.
Even on its own merits, an album as eclectic and rewarding to listen to as the “Fifty Shades of Grey” soundtrack originating from such misguided source material is a miracle—and it’s well worth getting tied up by it even a decade later.
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