Try This

With the release of M!Zundastood, Pink (or P!nk as we are now encouraged to refer to her) has already played her trump card at an early stage in her career, abandoning the ubiquitous notion of poppy R’n’B for a new life as a tortured rock star. Try as she might though, that former life is proving harder to shake off than she might have thought. Her excellent Dublin gig this year was almost universally populated by 12-year-old girls in deeley boppers and she is still referred to in terms of Christina and Britney rather than the more alternative set. Try This would initially appear to be an attempt to harden her sound and image yet more. M!Zundastood’s archietect Linda Perry has had her role reduced to a mere three tracks – none of which are particularly good – and in her place is the considerably more street credible Tim Armstrong, as well as players from his bands Rancid and The Transplants. He’s certainly not done a bad job on the songwriting front, injecting the kind of melodic suss that has always been his strong point and which is responsible for the majority of the best tracks here. Yet even some of these – the single ‘Trouble’, ‘Last To Know’, ‘Humble Neighbourhoods’ – are pretty flimsy, hampered by vaguely pissed off lyrics (“I’m trouble – yeah trouble now”/“We’re bad people and we do bad things”) and an eye on the production that makes sure proceedings don’t ever get too spiky. The few occasions that he and Pink push the boundaries a little are far better. The sunny ska of ‘Tonight’s The Night’ recalls Rancid themselves, the sultry ‘Oh My God’ features a cameo from Peaches, and ‘Save My Life’ marries a catchy punk tune with – for once – an insightful lyric. Elsewhere the Charlie’s Angels thing isn’t as much a mess as you might remember, but the couple of excursions back into R&B territory stick out like a sore thumb. What does all this tell as about Pink? She still has the sass to work with good people and she still has issues. But ultimately, although Try This isn’t bad, there are still better pop albums out there as well as better punk rock ones. That may prove to be her biggest issue of all.