It’s hard to follow an album packed with P!nk‘s
greatest hits, but “The Truth About Love,” P!nk’s latest album, delivers. This album is mostly fun pop-rock in the classic P!nk tradition, but also has a few heartfelt acoustic ballads which showcase strong vocals.
“The Truth About Love” sums up its subject matter with the title; the tracks cover the topic by exploring imperfect relationships, the single life and loving people when they can’t manage to love themselves.
First up is Are We All We Are? a synth fever dream with an “us against them” theme. If you haven’t heard Blow Me (One Last Kiss), I envy you. You get to love it without remembering the day it was playing every time you turned on a Top 40 radio station. This song is a danceable pop-rock tune with a clever, self-explanatory title, which is why this single got to No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in Germany and Scotland. The attitude of this track sounds more authentic on the explicit album version.
Try, the next single off this album, starts off with slow bass, drums, and a sweet piano lick. The song gets more rocking as it goes on.
Fun.‘s front man Nate Ruess joins P!nk for the duet Just Give Me a Reason. The song starts out with just piano and P!nk singing. In come the strings, bass and synth drums for the sad but hopeful chorus.
Following a song about making up, True Love (feat. Lily Rose Cooper) is about not being able to live with or without someone: “I really hate you/So much, I think it must be/True love.” This tune is poppy with a hip-hop beat, and its sweet vocals contrast the violence in the lyrics. By the way, Lily Rose Cooper was formerly known as Lily Allen, a British pop star best known for her single “Smile.”
The rest of the songs on The Truth About Love can be grouped into three sets: dysfunctional relationships, acoustic ballads and single power anthems. The album’s title track, “The Truth About Love,” is a do0-woppy track with bass and background vocals that drive the piece. This song explores the light and dark sides of love; P!nk goes from thinking love “may just be perfect” to “the Truth About Love is it’s all a lie.”
Slut Like You leads the single power anthems, featuring that thing artists like to do when they put a crowd of people in the background, making it seem like the song is happening in a crowded club. Walk of Shame is a story song which pokes fun at experiencing a walk of shame. “Here Comes the Weekend (feat. Eminem),” is a dance-able party song featuring sirens. The track also features Eminem, rapping if “I don’t get some liquor, I’ll hurt you,” summing up the focus of this tune.
Next are the acoustic ballads, my personal favorites. Beam Me Up describes “a parallel universe/Where nothing breaks and nothing hurts.” The track starts out with just acoustic guitar and slowly layers in vocals, strings, harmonies and piano as the piece becomes more upbeat and optimistic. The album ends with The Great Escape, a piano ballad with powerful lyrics. The song mentions crying out for help as “trying to scream underwater” but has a strong theme of not giving in: “The passion and pain/Are gonna keep us alive someday.” (Agencies)