Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Truth About Love | P!nk

Rating: ★★★★☆

It's been a while since we've heard from P!nk (whose birth name is Alecia Moore.) She's been off the scene for a year or so, due to a pregnancy, and now she's back with The Truth About Love.

P!nk's previous studio album, Funhouse, completely blew me away: it was, and still is, a completely flawless album.  Although two new singles were released with her 2010 compilation album Greatest Hits... So Far!!!, I have still been craving for an entire new album from P!nk since Funhouse was released.

The Truth About Love does show that P!nk's musical style is now starting to vary. From heavier rock, to more urban-style music, to her native pop music, this album has a little bit of everything.

The lead single lifted from the album, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)," is a very cliché P!nk song; a pop break-up song. P!nk is like a kick-ass version of Taylor Swift in the sense that they both write songs about break-ups over and over again, yet all of the songs sound different and unique. Anyway, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" was released back in July, and I fell in love with the song immediately, and had me pumped up for the release of The Truth About Love. 

However, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" doesn't represent the album very well. In fact, when I first listened to the album, which was in my car, on the way home from the music store today, the opening song shocked me.  Titled "Are We All We Are," the first track on the album is very rock-influenced. Its backing track contains plenty of drums and guitars, and sounds like a song that people would "head-bang" to. (If you don't know, "head-banging" is a seizure-like movement that fans of heavy rock music do often, in which you just fling your head up and down to the music.) I've been wanting to hear P!nk's voice in a heavier rock song for a while, and I finally got my wish. It was well worth the wait, because she sounds great in "Are We All We Are." The rock sound is not exclusive to "Are We All We Are," and reappears in "Walk of Shame." That song, although not as strong as the former, is still quite a catchy song, and is a good example of how well P!nk's voice sounds in a rock song.

The third track of the album, and the second single from the album, "Try," is a beautiful rock ballad about self-empowerment. It sounds amazing, and is a great contrast to all of the faster dance songs on the album. The successful history of "Glitter in the Air" could easily be repeated with "Try." The song is a great highlight from the album.

One of the best songs on the album is titled "True Love," and features Lily Allen (now known as Lily Rose Cooper after her marriage.) The chorus is probably one of the best from P!nk, and lyrics describe the ups and downs of a relationship but accepts that those ups and downs really do signify a strong relationship. It is also notable that the melody of the song in the chorus is amazing; it's very catchy, noticeable, and is easy to sing right along with. Personally, I think the song would do well as a single, and could be in the same position as "Get This Party Started" and "So What" are in now in terms of memorable P!nk songs.

Opening with the line "I'm not a slut, I just love love," "Slut Like You" is another song from the album that would be a massive hit as a single. Although the lyrical content is of what I would expect from someone like Ke$ha, it's still a great dance song. It's a shame that The Truth About Love wasn't released a few months back, because "Slut Like You" is definitely worth of a "summer smash-hit" title.

The title track of the album is also quite catchy. I'm taking an assumption that "The Truth About Love" is a song about what people try to hide about love and sex. However, the fact that the line "...the smelling of armpits" was included in the song is completely disgusting.

Although there are many songs that shine on the album, one song in particular really should have ended up as scrapped material. "Here Comes the Weekend" features rapper Eminem, but it sounds like a hot mess. It's a very immature song, with not much meaning. I do like that the song has more of an urban feel, as that is another genre that I wanted to hear P!nk in, but the song is just terrible.

Another problem I had with The Truth About Love was that P!nk was very desperate to add as many curse words that she could into the album. I do know that curse words are very common is P!nk's vocabulary, considering that she was originally planning on using the title Heartbreak is a Motherfucker for her 2008 album, Funhouse, but she pretty much just sprinkled curse words all over the album. For what purpose, I have no idea. All of the cursing in the album will also plague all of the songs with censors when it comes to radio and public airplay.

Overall, The Truth About Love was another great release from P!nk. Did it live up to her previous record, Funhouse? To my standards, no. However, the album opened so many new doors for P!nk. It toys with different genres and styles of music, and although it isn't a huge change in style, there is a lot of variety in the album. It may not as good as Funhouse, but it definitely the second-strongest P!nk record to date.

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