Pink mixes things up with new album 'Hurts 2B Human'
Since she transitioned away from the R&B-inflected pop of her debut album – remember the Destiny’s Child-esque ‘There You Go’? – for more of a rock feel, Pink’s vast catalogue has had a fairly consistent sound.
Odd excursions like ‘Feel Good Time’ aside, it’s been power pop/rock and heartfelt ballads all the way. On her eighth album, Hurts 2B Human, the stadium filler mixes things up. After business as usual on the album’s first track, the feisty, F-bomb-laden ‘Hustle’, vocal effects and electronic influences creep in on ‘(Hey Why) Miss You Sometime’.
And so it continues, with the types of songs we’ve come to expect from Pink (the soaring ‘My Attic’ could have appeared on any of her past few albums; the rousing ‘Courage’ is every bit as inspiring as ‘Try’) mixed in with the likes of EDM banger ‘Can We Pretend’.
But through it all, Hurts 2B Human, which also features collaborations with Wrabel, Khalid and Chris Stapleton, is unmistakably a Pink album – if nothing else proves that then ‘We Could Have It All’ certainly does. It just comes with the types of musical adventures necessary for an artist at this stage of her career. (Out now) 4.5 stars
