5 long years have passed since Pink’s last studio album The Truth About Love. In the years since then she collaborated with Dallas Green as duo You+Me and released album rose ave. in 2014. She’s also popped up as a guest vocalist here and there and recorded a couple of songs for the Alice Through the Looking Glass soundtrack. Earlier this year Pink announced new music with the release of the superb What About Us, which is the lead single from the singer’s recently released seventh album Beautiful Trauma.
What About Us may have wrongly led fans to think that an EDM album was on the way from Pink but that’s certainly not what Beautiful Trauma is. As with all of Pink’s albums, the name of the game is variety and while she may only take a handful of risks musically, that doesn’t ruin the enjoyment of the album. Essentially if you’ve loved all of Pink’s albums up to this point, you’re likely going to love this one too. Beautiful Trauma isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, instead feeling like a celebration of everything we love about Pink.
The album opens with the punchy title track. Beautiful orchestration starts the song before Pink’s restrained vocal comes in over tinkling piano. A beat soon appears and the attitude-filled vocal delivery, peppered with a bit of swearing, that Pink is known for kicks in. It’s a playful and catchy song, and a strong start to the record.
Revenge features Eminem, whom Pink has collaborated with on several occasions now, and it’s one of the standout moments on the track. The perky feel of the track bubbles under the biting lyrics as the two artists tackle a cheater and list out their plans to get revenge. The tempo changes with third track Whatever You Want, which is an acoustic-driven ballad with a strong beat, showcasing that phenomenal voice that has kept Pink at the top of her game all these years.
Elsewhere on the record Where We Go is a folk-dance track with bouncy guitars and soaring vocals, Better Life favours harmonies over instrumentation with great effect, and I Am Here is a rousing gospel-influenced number that is surprisingly stirring.
Secrets is one of the more experimental songs on the record and it’s a direction Pink could definitely explore further in the future. The pulsating rhythms give her a different sound and it’s one of the most interesting moments included on this release.
For those who love a ballad, Pink has you covered. But We Lost It is a beautiful piano ballad that puts Pink’s voice in the spotlight and closing track You Get My Love is a jazzy affair that fully utilises the range of Pink’s voice and her impressive vibrato.
Beautiful Trauma has been dismissed in some parts as ‘more of the same’ but when the quality is this high, why would you want anything different? Pink always delivers and there are plenty of singles on her to give the album longevity. Pop music would be a very dull place without Pink and I for one am glad she’s back. Beautiful Trauma is chock full of solid tunes and it’ll be getting plenty of spins from me over the next few months.
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Track list: 1. Beautiful Trauma 2. Revenge (featuring Eminem) 3. Whatever You Want 4. What About Us 5. Bue We Lost It 6. Barbies 7. Where We Go 8. For Now 9. Secrets 10. Better Life 11. I Am Here 12. Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken 13. You Get My Love Record label: RCA Release date: 13th October 2017
