P!nk has never had an artistic personality that makes much sense. In 2001, she gave us an unexpected mash-up of dance, pop-metal, hip-hop, blues and teen-pop called M!ssundaztood that so far holds the crown for being the best and most exciting mainstream pop album to come out this decade. But then she followed this unqualified triumph with the lackluster Try This. Further confusing fans, P!nk has always insisted she couldn't care less what anyone thinks about her, despite that she seeks out unabashed popsters like Max Martin and L.A. Reid to help make decidedly radio-friendly songs.
Even more inexplicable is the fact that P!nk is neither a major label product like Britney nor an earnest but dopey rebel like Avril—she genuinely behaves like a fuck-the-world outsider but at the same time thrives within the Top 40-friendly worlds of dance-pop and soul-rock.
Her latest release, I'm Not Dead, succeeds in further confounding expectations about her artistic potential and also succeeds in creating the most compelling, engaging pop album to come out this year.
Things start off with the lead single, Stupid Girls,\ which mixes Spanish guitar riffs, club beats and more vocal sass than a girl who just got kicked off the bus on ""Next"" to create the smartest and catchiest song to hit radio this year. ""Stupid Girls"" is a fantastically savage, witty attack on ""porno paparazzi girls"" like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson, people everyone agrees on hating but seemingly can't stop paying attention to. When P!nk sings, ""What happened to the dream of a girl President / She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent,"" it is simultaneously hilarious and poignant.
After this spark of brilliance come three enjoyable but simplistic songs. Oddly enough, P!nk seems to have front loaded this album with filler before launching into one of the most eclectic, honest and challenging series of songs pop music has given us in years.
Her confused, brilliant muse rears its head again on ""Dear Mr. President,"" a folk protest song where P!nk is aided only by a spare acoustic guitar and back-up vocals from fellow angry lefties Indigo Girls. This song is truly the most bewildering in P!nk's catalogue. Instead of coming across as a fashionable attempt to cash-in on vague anti-Bush sentiments or as a pop star's misguided attempt to prove they can do more than get the party started, ""Dear Mr. President"" is moving and well thought out.
She doesn't stoop to merely insulting Bush or throwing vague rhetoric around. Lyrics like ""What kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?"" and ""Let me tell you 'bout hard work / Rebuilding your house after the bombs took it away"" are sung with a soulful depression and a yearning for real answers. No one could foresee a pop star named after the fluorescent color she dyes her hair to be the one to throw the sharpest, most memorable musical critique against the Bush administration, but the evidence is here. As she so rightly points out, her ideological adversary has ""come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.""
From this point on, it is clear P!nk is out to make music that is as confused and wildly contradictory personality. The rest of the album combines hair metal's arena-ready chorus, dance music's stuttering beats, soul music's honest confessions and teen-pop's obsessively catchy choruses.
""'Cuz I Can"" combines gritty bubblegum dance beats with icy guitar riffs and throws in what sounds like four nuns on acid singing ""I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!"" to produce teen-pop's version of post-punk dance music.
""U + Ur Hand"" is a similarly successful mix-up of separate genres, combining New Order-esque dance-rock with a Mötley Crüe chorus. The song is a classic kiss-off track, telling a guy to ""Keep your drink just give me the money / It's just you and your hand tonight"" because she refuses to be his reason for a high five with his buddies the next day.
Overall, I'm Not Dead is not consistent enough to be a classic on the level of M!ssundaztood, but its highlights are some of the most challenging, innovative and catchy songs to come out of mainstream music in a long time. P!nk has proven herself to be an artist that even Top 40 music haters should pay attention to.
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