Taylor Swift officially made her return post-1989 by teaming up with Zayn Malik for a duet that will be featured in the next 50 Shades Of Grey film, which is, very subtly, called 50 Shades Darker. The song is called “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” and joins the ranks of Beyonce’s stripped down, spooky “Crazy In Love” rendition as another pretty good shivery pop song to emerge from the film series.
And though there was already a trailer for the new installment, today they’ve shared the extended version, which is always so much better and juicier. For those who need a brief recap of the first film — good girl and virgin, Ana, meets BDSM-obsessed rich mogul Christian, who introduces her to a whole new world of pleasure and pain, but at what cost? Darker gets into those, uh, costs.
Did you know that Christian’s former submissive Leila Williams is a total psycho and extremely jealous of Ana? And that her boss does not approve of her getting back together with him? I’ll probably see this movie because it comes out around Valentines Day (February 10) and I love to torture (ha!) myself, but really, the trailer is great because of the Taylor Swift song.
I heard some radio announcers on local pop radio eviscerating the song, which is when I immediately knew it must be pretty great. Radio announcers seem to think that being an inhuman jerk is the only way to build a career. Sure, hating on music that’s bad can be strangely satisfying in its own way.
But the truth is, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” is a cloudy power ballad about the heady, uncontrollable power of living in between love and nothing. Swift fans know that in-between place is where she always shines, and Zayn’s falsetto impressed the hell out of me even though I’m already aware of how great “Pillow Talk” is.
Anyway, the song sounds even better when it’s soundtracking Christian sneakily caressing Ana’s leg in an elevator, or their passionate somehow-fully-clothed shower sex scene, and I’m not at all mad that Taylor returned with a movie-ready banger. You shouldn’t be, either. Watch the trailer above and if you’re just like, so above 50 Shades, you can listen to the song below via Spotify. Odds are the song will be inescapable by mid-spring, so you might as well get accustomed to it now.
