It says a lot about the transient nature of pop music today that an artist of the Grammy-winning, platinum-selling profile of Pink takes a couple of years' downtime between albums and then has to announce on her return that she is er, very much alive and well.
And indeed she is. As well as getting married (to long-time boyfriend, Carey Hart) Pink has clearly been doing a lot of thinking of late. The result is a much more confessional, polemical and political collection of songs than her legion of fans might reasonably have expected.
The perky new single, ‘Stupid Girl’, with its acoustic guitars, textured strings and vaguely Latino rhythms, is almost a public health announcement and sees the former Alecia Moore lashing out at what she sees as celebrity-obsessed Hollywood types and their “itsy bitsie doggies and their teenie weenie tees” (are you listening Paris?). It’s heavy- hitting stuff for sure – and the matching video features a pair of bulimic exercise-junkies throwing up in the ladies room all in the cause of shedding a few calories. On the country-ish ballad ‘Dear Mr President’ she goes even further in telling it as it she sees it. With the help of Indigo Girls Amy Ray and Emily Sailers, this open letter to George W pulls few punches, as she lambasts Bush’s record on everything from gay rights and abortion to the plight of the poor and homeless. “Who do you pray for at night when you go to sleep,” she demands, getting even more up close and personal with the line “What kind of father would take his own daughters’ rights away?” She even brings up Bush’s alleged past misdemeanours on what will surely give radio programmers nightmares: “You’ve come a long way from whiskey and cocaine” (Ouch!) Rarely has such a mainstream MTV-friendly US act nailed their political colours to the mast with such outspoken directness. (Not even Springsteen or the Dixie Chicks have come as close). Elsewhere she relaxes, albeit only slightly – the title track is a riff-laden power ballad, while the buzz-saw guitars and anthemic chorus of ‘Leave Me Alone’ recall 80’s pop-rock queen Pat Benatar. The R&B-driven ‘I Got Money’ chronicles her recent life of fame, fortune travel and fake friends, while ‘Conversations With My 13 Year Old Self’ sees her going back-to-the-future to address her younger self. It’s a neat idea and despite the unwieldy title, a touching one, especially on the parting line: “Till we meet again I wish you well.”
‘The One That Got Away’ cops the acoustic guitar lick of Neil Young’s ‘Needle And The Damage Done’, in the process evoking the spirit of Janis Joplin and latter day roots singers like Shelby Lynn. The final, hidden, track features a song written by her dad – James T Moore, a Vietnam vet (and ironically, a staunch Republican), who accompanies her on a gentle anti-war ballad that wouldn’t be out of place on a mid-60s Joan Baez album.
Ambitious in every sense, it should be fascinating to see how this one fares Stateside in the coming months. And elsewhere too, come to think of it.