Album Review: Pink - The Truth About Love

Pink
The Truth About Love
Rating: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

I've always liked Pink. She has just the right amount of attitude and pop smarts, but there is always that pull with her between wanting to be a pop star and her wanting to remain somewhat edgy. For the most part, this tension creates some amazing music, but far often than not, she gets timid and retreats back into tired and worn pop constructions that don't play to her strengths. Her latest record The Truth About Love doesn't really solve this conundrum with her though, and still has no idea what to do with her most of the time. There are no shortage of golden pop hits here, mixing her mainstream likability with punk-pop hooks, but she is still mining the same territory of being the woman scorned, and it can get a little tired at times. And more alarming is the penchant for trying to force her into way more mainstream direction than she can pull off, and it comes across as clumsy and ill-conceived.

But the good thing is that there are plenty of radio-friendly pop punk hits off this record that make up for any poor judgments in trajectory. "Slut Like You" is another infectious tongue-firmly-in-cheek track that only Pink seems to be able get away with.



Crunchy guitars and spiky attitude coupled with a wicked sense of humor mark "Walk of Shame."



Sort of a new tack for Pink is the almost Two Door Cinema Club-esque "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" which is a more poppier sound for her, but still has a slight edge to it, and is one of her most potent tracks.



Other tracks that either stretch or stick within her wheel well are the grinding opener "Are Well All We Are,"



hooky "Truelove,"



and the quirky strut of title track "The Truth About Love."



But there are too many tracks that come across as dated or just not right for Pink's outsized persona. Biggest misstep is "Here Comes The Weekend" with some rap verses from Eminem, that would have been more cool about 10 years ago but just comes across sludgy and tired.



Her producers also try to shoe horn her into more ballad and mid-tempo territory that ends up making her sound generic and slow the album down to a crawl. Mid tempo number "Try" feels like a Kelly Clarkson B-side,



"Just Give Me A Reason," a duet with fun.'s Nate Ruess is about as shlocky a ballad out there right now,



and treacly closer "The Great Escape" does highlight Pink's softer side, but ultimately ends things too subtly.



So really what we end up with her on The Truth About Love is another good Pink record with lots of infectious and hooky tracks, but also saddled with a lot of filler that seems calculated to pander to the widest demographics out there. It's records like this that frustrate me because you can see where the artist's strengths lie, but there are those record label/high profile producer cords that keep pulling them in another direction. Some day, I hope Pink allows some edgier producer to just take her under their wings and let her really shine.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.