PINK
Try This (Arista)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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Pink's first album, Can't Take Me Home, was a better than average affair but it was still firmly mired in commercial dance pop like so many other artists. I didn't pay her much attention until she broke away from that kind of prefabricated commercialism on the new version of Lady Marmalade for Moulin Rouge. If that still ranks as commercial in your book, then it's time to check her out again. With "Try This" Pink's made one of the best I-don't-have-any-balls-to-put-out-but-I'm-balls-out-anyway rock albums since Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill.

My favorite cut by far is "God Is A DJ" which has a very rock approach even though lyrically it's a club anthem. Pink's belting and the chorus simply have too many hooks to ignore, and it's still plenty danceable. The first single, "Trouble" has lots of inspired kick-out-the-jams moments too, and in general the album is as much driven by Pink's voice and lyrics as it is by guitarist Tim Armstrong's blistering solos. Pretty much the whole album keeps pumping at this high energy level, but later there's a slower introspective tune called "Love Song" where she sounds more like the bluesy stylings of Joan Osbourne, perhaps just to show she can do that too. The album also comes loaded with a DVD of pictures, interviews and her video for "Trouble," which casts her as a trollop trashing a saloon in the Old West. I wouldn't be surprised to see Pink in an action movie soon; she looks at home in a bar fight.

It's difficult to say how long Pink will go after the bad girl punk attitude, but she's certainly a lot more believable at it than Britney or Christina. Pink is not afraid to write her own lyrics with plenty of unladylike cursing and she is not afraid to re-invent herself. Maybe that adds up to a 21st Century Madonna. Or maybe she really is just a lot of Trouble.

© 2004 - Rusty Pipes