The Singles Jukebox

This “Fifty Shades of Grey” soundtrack offering sticks to her tried-and-true.

[Video]
[4.25]

Mo Kim: The lyrics rarely transcend ninth grade study hall poetry, but Goulding wields a voice like glass. Sentiments heavy-handed coming from anybody else’s mouth feel air-kissed from hers. I know where this is going once the booming beat kicks in, but it doesn’t stop the formula from being any potent. A compelling expression of euphoric abandon that Fifty Shades of Grey doesn’t deserve.
[8]

Katherine St Asaph: Max Martin commands a great deal of industry power, so he was bound to be one of the producers Republic roped in for the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack. It’s an odd scene: first some near-fetishistic mewling from the Weeknd, now this ballad from the usually less vanilla Goulding. Any musicality remains subservient to the contractually-obligated hitmaking on display. Tove Lo’s top line has a few interesting kinks, but Savan Kotecha and co. show no production discipline; it’s like they just couldn’t restrain themselves from adding choral swells and Tedder percussion, just flogging that repetition. Blandness dominates; I’d be shocked if anyone played this track past its tie-in.
[3]

Alfred Soto: I count three, four, five lyrical solecisms against a backdrop of symphonic overstatement. In other words, this week’s Faith No More track without the yuks.
[3]

Micha Cavaseno: This sounds like the kind of wedding song that if you heard the couple do their first dance to it, you’d hope they break up out of retribution for this punishment. Ellie Goulding has one of the worst bad voices in recent memory, and she fails with grace and dignity and much reward.
[1]

Crystal Leww: Ellie Goudling’s voice is impossible to pin down: airy and breathy and like it would go perfectly on something fragile and romantic. Oddly enough, it’s her souped–up productions that have served her voice the best, propelling the weightlessness to a dizzying, in-love obsessive frenzy. “Love Me Like You Do” sounds great when the production kicks it into high gear, but it comes much too late, and I’m left wondering what this would have sounded like with co-writer Tove Lo on the track instead.
[5]

Luisa Lopez: Ellie Goulding’s greatness lies in her ability to make loud moments sound intimate, like you’re mumbling to someone at a party and grasping the meaning only by reading each other’s mouths above the noise. Everything here has the happy hushed urgency of realization compounded by those falling notes on the bridge, the wonderful moments when the synths go silent altogether. It’s too bad the chorus doesn’t quite reach the beauty the rest of the song promises, but there’s too much near-chanting and it feels senseless compared to the way she builds the blue longing of her desire in the verses without even raising her voice. If only Fifty Shades of Grey had half a chance of sounding this sealike and sexy.
[7]

Kat Stevens: Don’t bore us — get to the chorus! Unfortunately when we finally do get to the chorus it sounds like Ellie’s saying “Love me Agadoo.”
[3]

Will Adams: It’s just as well Ellie didn’t write this; with its stompy drums, sweet nothings, and choir arrangements, “Love Me Like You Do” sounds like something that was gathering dust on the shelf and foisted upon Ellie when Max Martin started getting antsy about those trends being on their way out. Yet another entry in the tradition of star-studded soundtracks à la The Great Gatsby and Mockingjay that promise new songs from your favorite artists that end up being aural Nerf pellets.
[4]