February 17, 2023 |
12:01am
When Pink began working on her ninth album, she was reeling from her world nearly stopping on its axis.
The Grammy-winning singer and her toddler son, Jameson, battled severe cases of COVID-19 just days into the pandemic, and then her family lost two loved ones to cancer in 2021.
Pink, 43, channeled her anxiety and grief into “Trustfall” (out Friday), on which she documents her journey to accepting even the most difficult changes in life.
The vulnerable record alternates between tear-jerking ballads and dance-floor anthems, a sonic play on the dizzying mood swings that often come with tough times.
The opener, “When I Get There,” is one of the most gut-wrenching tracks in Pink’s two-plus-decade catalog, finding her looking up to the heavens and asking her late father, “Is there a bar up there where you’ve got a favorite chair? / Where you sit with friends and talk about the weather? / Is there a place you go to watch the sunset?”
Starting an album with a slow song seems like a bold choice — until you remember Pink has been rewriting the rulebooks since she came on the scene in 2000 as a neon-haired, envelope-pushing artist who has gone on to call out presidents in her music and scale buildings during live performances.
That ever-present sense of fearlessness carries over to “Runaway,” an earworm of a standout that celebrates living on the edge, as well as “Turbulence,” a blisteringly beautiful reminder that panic-inducing bumps in the road are just temporary.
At times, Pink taps into the badass we’ve all come to know and love. “Hate Me,” which she co-wrote with Adele’s mastermind collaborator Greg Kurstin, showcases a growl in her voice that fans haven’t heard since her 2003 single “Trouble” along with a chantey chorus that could’ve fit on her rollicking 2008 album, “Funhouse.”
The bulk of “Trustfall,” though, is made up of softer, more tender moments. The piano-driven “Lost Cause” normalizes arguments in relationships but asks partners not to take brutal jabs just for the hell of it, while the acoustic Chris Stapleton-featured closer, “Just Say I’m Sorry,” stresses the importance of letting go of pride in a high-stakes relationship.
The overarching theme of the album remains the same even as its 13 tracks bounce from one genre to the next. “Never Gonna Not Dance Again,” the euphoric Max Martin-produced lead single, sums it up perfectly: “We’re never getting younger, so I’m gonna have some fun.”
Us too, Pink, us too.
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