I bought P!nk's fifth studio album,
Funhouse on speck on day, whilst browsing in Zavvi. I have always been a huge fan on hers, ever since her
Missundazstud days. Why, you may ask, did I not rush out to by her latest offering, I will explain later.
The album commences with lead single
So What. The angsty, angry track gave the singer her first ever No.1 and had the entire nation humming the "Na nana nana na . . ." hook to themselves for weeks on end. However, I found it was, at best, a little above average. It was typical P!nk. Angry verses, a catchy chorus, verging on rock, a everything a classic P!nk track was made up of. But yet, at the same time, lacking. Lacking what, I did not yet know, but there was noticeably something missing.
The album moves on to the second single,
Sober, another bitter track that talks of how she doesn't want to fit the cliche the girl whose had one drink too many at a party. It's edgy, original but yet somehow, bores me to tears. Unsurprisingly, the single made little impact anywhere. We then trawl through a series of clingy, samey mid tempo ballads about losing love. Then we get to third single,
Please Don't Leave Me. It's a chirpy little tune that sees the singer begging her partner not to walk away and how she can change. It stenches of a certain emptiness, that I will soon learn is a recurring theme through out the record. An awful choice for third single in my opinion, particularly after the failure of
Sober.
Finally, we get to the first stand out track of the album. It's fun, sing-a-long, naughty little ditty, aptly entitled,
Bad Influence. The lyrics are fun and edgy, the beat is contagious and like all great P!nk tracks, it has a killer chorus. It is then preceded by an equally as memerbale, if a little similar up tempo song, the titled track,
Funhouse. It fits well into the Circus-esque theme of the album and a much better choice for third single, I think most fans would agree. ". . . 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...FUN!" she chants to the electro beat.
However the album then falls back into uninteresting, unoriginal string of ballads. First
Crystal Ball, an acoustic number that isn't half bad, but suffers due to it's surroundings. Then,
Mean, a country/rock track about... wait for it - the end of a relationship. The preceding track follows the same route. Then we get treated to the next mildly interesting song,
Ave Mary A. A personal favourite of mine and one of the few tracks worth a second listen. Then another boring slow tempo song, ballad followed by another mid-tempo, party track. Nothing new here.
The album ends on an incredible low.
Why Did I Ever Like You, reminds me of something like Avril Lavigne on acid. The chorus is uninviting, the lyrics leave a lot to be desired, overall just all we've seen before.
This album is a rarity for P!nk. There are actually less decent tracks on here than there are awful. Which leads me to the conclusion that P!nk is a shadow of the artist she used to be. That, however is not all necessarily her fault. Perhaps we have just gotten bored of her. Maybe she has been ripped off one too many times, that the thought of an angry, energetic cussing at the world no longer excites us. Perhaps. But she is certainly partly to blame here. For one, the material here surprisingly un-varied. There seem to only be two stories being told here; "Lets get drown our sorrows and get thrashed" or "I'm sorry I'm a bitch, please stay with me". Neither are particularly appealing.
To conclude, P!nk appears to have become a parody of herself. People no longer think, here's a new, exciting, bubbly, interesting song from P!nk, instead they think, here is yet another angsty, repetitive track from the cliche that is P!nk.
STAR RATING:2 out of 5.
