Music

Album Review: Fifty Shades of Grey Soundtrack

What better way to kick off the highly anticipated Fifty Shades of Grey movie week than with a soundtrack? Maybe with Jamie Dornan in the flesh but we can’t have that, so I guess this will do. This soundtrack features a magnitude of different artists from Beyoncé to The Weeknd to The Rolling Stones. Although some songs weren’t catchy enough to keep me interested, most of the album consisted of both sexy and romantic songs that fit the Fifty Shades story line perfectly.

The soundtrack starts off with Annie Lennox’s beautiful and soulful voice doing a cover of the classic “I Put A Spell On You.” It was probably one of my favorite renditions of that song, ever. That woman has got soul, guys.

I’ll admit to being that person who just doesn’t get why Beyoncé is such a huge deal to everyone; I really don’t and probably never will. Yet, that Crazy in Love rendition is my favorite song on the soundtrack. It is basically the FSOG theme song. The first trailer for the movie and almost all the others that you see on TV every time your favorite show goes on commercial break plays this song in the background. I love every single thing about it. I find it to be so cool that she took an original song of hers, released about 12 years ago, and made it to perfectly fit the movie and music fans who love that sexy kind of genre. In my opinion, this song is better than the original.

Beyoncé’s music makes another cameo with Haunted, a song she released back in 2013 that was remixed by Michael Diamond to give it that Fifty Shades vibe. I like this one, although I thought 5 minutes and 30 seconds was long enough that you want to change the song before it ends. At least I did anyway. I also personally loved the remixed version on this album a lot better than the original song. Michael Diamond did some amazing things with this.

Another favorite was AWOLNATION’s “I’m on Fire” which brought the romance aspect to the soundtrack. This was a cover from Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 Born in the U.S.A. album. Song covers seemed to be a reoccurring theme for this soundtrack, which really made it different than others in a very successful way. In fact, I liked a lot of covers better than the originals.

One of the sexier original songs from this soundtrack is The Weeknd’s “Earned it”, which knowing The Weeknd’s music history is not surprising considering he always makes music that someone would put on their sex playlist if they had one. So, of course this one hit hard for a movie that features a lot of sex.

“Salted Wound” from Sia takes me to church, as the kids would way. This is like a ballad to Christian Grey who is obviously a very screwed up dude who doesn’t let anyone in. “Give your heart, and say come take it, and she will see you’re a good man.” Sia’s voice is also remarkably haunting and beautiful in this, so much so that the song actually hits you in the core. You can’t go wrong with a song that’s beautiful and also screams “Hey, this is for you Christian Grey.” and i’m sure any fan of the FSOG books/movie or music can agree.

Okay, one of the coolest things about this soundtrack is the variety of artists that are on it. I mean, this soundtrack has Frank Sinatra’s Witchcraft in it (beautiful, romantic, hello I want a Frank Sinatra!), unknown artists who are talented as hell and then A-listers. Somehow, they were able to combine all these different artists and make one album that all make sense with each other, and the movie. That just goes to show us one-thing guys; love and sex will always be a reoccurring theme in music.

Although I’ve already had my Fifty Shades of Grey movie ticket for weeks (yeah, yeah, go ahead and judge me) this soundtrack made me 100 times more excited for the movie and left me with the optimism that even if the movie doesn’t live up to it’s potential, the soundtrack will still rule.

So, for the Fifty Shades of Grey haters out there (and we’ve all heard about those) i’m here to say that this soundtrack is a great one for fans of really good music, no matter the genre they’re into because there is one for everyone in it. You can hate Christian Grey’s possessive ways, but you will not hate the music created because of this love story.

And for the FSOG fans…Happy Fifty Shades of Grey week!

Nicole Mendez

Nicole is a 20 years old Miami native who enjoys pop culture, cookies, and coffee a little to much. When she was in elementary school, her teacher gave her a book about a novelist and wrote that one day she's be a writer and now 11 years later, she is a mass communications major. Her hobbies include watching really popular shows years after they were a thing, going to concerts and attending cool events. She hopes to interview incredible and inspiring celebrities someday and write about it!