LaFace/Zomba Label Group
Top 40 pop music is about as empty-headed and dispensable as a plastic doll. It's supposed to be. After all, sales are based on the quantity of units moved, not the quality of material found on those units. Cynical wags might argue that marriage is also treated with this same expendability.
One exception is a young fireball named Alecia Moore. (That's P!nk to you.) Pigeonholing has never been her scene, braying against the pre-fab image of teen sensation that L.A. Reid and LaFace Records tried to slap on her when she first emerged in 2000. P!nk's sound has always been eclectic, spanning genres from R&B to punk to country-fried rock. P!nk applies a similarly complex approach to the subject of divorce with her new album, Funhouse.
2008 was a rocky year for the internationally acclaimed pop star. Her single "So What," a raucous kiss-off to lost love, proved her biggest hit to date, reaching the #1 spot on the U.S. pop charts, as well as the pop charts in eight other countries. The song has also been nominated for a Grammy Award. Yet that success stemmed from the dissolution of her tumultuous relationship with motocross racer Carey Hart. Although their marriage lasted a little over two years, the two still claim to be friends. Hart even appears in the video for "So What."
That should be a clue that Funhouse is not a one-sided blame record out for revenge. P!nk acknowledges her role in the divorce, most pointedly with the song "Please Don't Leave Me," a plea for reconciliation tucked amidst a laundry list of the mistakes that contributed to the break-up. Of course, this is the same album with "It's All Your Fault," P!nk's "Damn you, why did you love me?" tune that places the blame for her despair squarely on the shoulders of the ex-husband who dared to "call [her] beautiful." The title song sees P!nk tossing her lost life out of a home that now taunts her with memories gone sour. It's heated enough, but the line in the chorus about a house made "full of evil clowns" with her pain? It's hokey and disarmingly frightening for those of us who still flinch at the sight of Pennywise.
The final song on Funhouse is "Glitter In The Air," a gentle mournful ballad wherein P!nk asks us all to acknowledge the many sides of relationships—and to still try again.
P!nk's past albums followed a radio-friendly pattern. With Funhouse, however, deviation from the traditional "front-loaded with singles" album format would have better served her purposes. Although Funhouse is undeniably vulnerable, as it is now, it can be a bit jarring. I think the listener could feel even more of an emotional connection with the music if the songs flowed together more smoothly.
As the cultural tides shift, views surrounding divorce change. Rarely is one person to blame, and there can be no uniform emotional response to the death of a relationship. In fact, one person can feel a whole range of conflicting emotions about it... sometimes in one sitting. P!nk's multifaceted approach to divorce with Funhouse proves cathartic for her listeners as well as for herself.
Review by M. Brianna Stallings
6 comments:
"I think the listener could feel even more of an emotional connection with the music if the songs flowed together more smoothly."
i've heard the album, and i agree with you. it's almost as if the producers knew this record would be broken down to assorted MP3s anyway, so having all tracks flow together more smoothly wasn't a concern.
I haven't heard the album -- and I think this is the first time I've actually WANTED to buy an album before even finishing the entire review (now that I've finished, I still want to buy it...in case you were wondering ;]). I like P!ink, and I enjoy her songs when I catch them on the radio, but this will be the first album of hers I actually go out and purchase. Thanks for the excellent review!
To Hj7:
It's reassuring to know that there is room in mainstream pop music for emotional complexity.
Thank you for your compliment. I really appreciate it, and I hope you enjoy the new album as much as I do!
Brianna
To gOnZoRiFFiC:
I think there is a certain loose continuity to it. It seems as though either P!nk, her producers or both do a good job with "matching" songs; that is, putting one song right next to another song that sound like they would work well together. It works in those moments, but overall after repeated listens, it becomes obvious and seems cavalier.
Brianna
It' not suppose to be smooth because emotions arn't smooth and life and love isn't smooth. It's suppose to feel like watch someone with a split peronality, which I think it accomplishes. It's certainly a bipolar album if nothing else. I love it.
Y'know, I hadn't really thought about that. Thank you for bringing up that point. It's an interesting one.
Thanks for reading, Helen! :)
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