Ms. Soon-to-be-twenty-seven Taylor Swift and ex-Directioner Zayn Malik released a surprise single last Friday, December 9. “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” features the two singers, also known as Tayn / Zaylor when collaborating.
What does this mean?!? Is T. Swizzle trying to get back at Harry Styles and bring Zayn back in…style?
Taylor Swift and Zayn Invade Radios Nationwide
For one thing, it was the weirdest song to hear on the radio on a Friday morning. I didn’t hear it advertised anywhere (impressive), and I wasn’t expecting any new music from Tay. Except for that time she treated us to a rendition of “This Is What You Came For”.
I also wasn’t expecting Taylor Swift to appear on the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised by anything she does at this point. She is full of surprises and dramatization in everything she does.
I’d also like to ask, what happened to Zayn’s debut album? That was a good album that didn’t get enough airplay on the radio. Sometimes being less mainstream can be good (ahem, twenty one pilots less than a year ago). But I think Mr. Malik deserved more than one immensely popular single (“PiLLOWTALK”) and a short-lived second single (“LIKE I WOULD”).
On this new single, Zayn and Taylor cry out to each other that they’ll keep calling each other’s names until the other comes back home. Zayn breaks out his falsetto with, “I don’t wanna live forever, ’cause I know I’ll be living in vain.” Taylor gives us another taste of her “new” pop sound she introduced to us in 1989, singing in a similar style we heard in “Out of the Woods.”
The song is a journey through a failed relationship. Both people are thinking about each other, asking a cab to drive to the other’s place, to visit an old lover. They would rather have one life to live if they can’t be together than to live forever without their lover.
It’s a decent radio-friendly tune. We’ll see what else these two have in store for us in 2017.
~Twentysomething Vision