Funhouse [PA]

Performer: P!nk
Engineer: Neil Kanal; Keith Gretlein; Matty Green; Tommy Andersson; Femio Hernandez; Marcella Araica; Lasse Morten; Chris Galland; Jimmy Harry; Joe Zook; Max Martin; Tim Roberts; Jake Davies; John Hanes; Pete Wallace; Michael Ilbert
Producer: MachoPsycho; Eg White; Al Clay; Max Martin; Billy Mann; Jake Davies; Butch Walker
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Pink (vocals, background vocals); Shellback (guitar, acoustic guitar, omnichord, keyboards, bass guitar, drums, percussion); Pete Wallace (guitar, piano, harmonium, bass guitar, programming); Max Martin (guitar, bass guitar); Eg White (guitars, Hammond b-3 organ, drums, percussion); Jimmy Harry (guitars, keyboards); Peter Parente (guitars); Billy Mann (electric guitar, keyboards, background vocals); Stevie Blacke, Ulf Janson, Henrik Janson, Stockholm Session Strings (strings); Butch Walker (keyboards, percussion, background vocals); Roger Manning (keyboards); Niklas Olovson, Tony Kanal (bass guitar); Josh Kane, Joey Waronker, John Yarling, Darren Dodd (drums); Robin Mortensen Lynch, Daniel Chase (programming); Kinnda Hamid (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Al Clay; Mark "Spike" Stent; Serban Ghenea; Tom Lord-Alge. Arrangers: Stevie Blacke; Ulf Janson; Henrik Janson. Pink's insistently hooky, attitude-filled pop-rock has kept the singer a fixture on the radio and on singles charts since the early 2000s. The artist's fifth effort, FUNHOUSE, doesn't tamper with the formula: Pink's powerhouse vocals and in-your-face approach, backed by stadium-sized production, are in full effect on all 12 tracks. Even though the album deals primarily with aftermath of her divorce and includes serious moments of self-confrontation like "Sober," fans needn't worry that Pink has lost any of her chutzpah. If anything, there's an increased sense of confidence and newfound liberation on tracks like the chest-thumping "So What" and the mischievous, bouncing "Bad Influence." In softer moments, like the ballad "I Don't Believe You" and the soulful "One Wrong Foot," Pink channels her personal experience into expressions that carry no less strength or muscle. But FUNHOUSE is a pop album first and foremost, and its catchy choruses, rollicking beats, and memorable vocal performances won't disappoint. Richard Thompson compared his bumpy marriage to Linda Thompson to a roller coaster named "the Wall of Death" and Pink picks up this carnivalesque thread, calling her troubled relationship with motocross star Carey Hart a Funhouse on her own entry into a long prestigious line of autobiographical divorce albums that stretches back to Blood on the Tracks. Naturally, Funhouse doesn't have any musical similarities with either Blood or Shoot Out the Lights, but Pink's divorce album is also emotionally different than either of these classics or Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear. Dylan, Thompson, and Gaye layer their albums with self-recriminations and ruminations, niceties that Pink shrugs off in one song, the brooding "I Don't Believe You." Other songs allude to the pain of the separation but never in a way that digs deep -- the musically fine blues-rocker "Mean" trots out clich�s, the delicate spooky Stevie Nicks folk of "Crystal Ball" skirts the divorce, and far from being a primal scream, "Please Don't Leave Me" surges on a Max Martin hook that pushes away the pain. But as Pink makes clear with the album-opening single "So What" -- also co-written with Martin -- she's more than ready to get out of this relationship, thrilled that she's still a rock star, still drinking in the afternoon. That her enthusiastic hedonism kind of contradicts the letter of her Britney-baiting "Stupid Girls" doesn't mean that it violates the spirit, as this is still the same Pink, the one who spits out jokes as she rumbles. This snotty stance is second nature to her, so maybe that's why Funhouse only really clicks when Pink abandons any pretense of mourning her relationship and just cuts loose with galumphing rhythms and schoolyard taunts, the kind that fuel both "So What" and "Bad Influence" and make them instantly indelible. This kind of oversized, obnoxious pop is where Pink's heart is at -- she's ready to party and as long as the tempo is high, Funhouse is a ride, empowered by her post-divorce freedom. In a way, that does make Funhouse unique among divorce albums, as it's the first to concentrate on liberation rather than loss -- but if she was going to go in this direction, Pink may have been better off not pretending that she's bothered by the breakup. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (p.126) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "With songwriter Max Martin chipping in, the rock diva finds ways to make emotional rawness go pop on FUNHOUSE..." Spin (p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "She's hot-blooded throughout, and it suits both her pipes and a female pop genre that rarely embraces this much tangible pain." Entertainment Weekly (p.60) - "Pink's true gift is as a musical androgynist -- blurring the line between rocker and pop star..." -- Grade: B+ Billboard (p.29) - "On her confident fifth album, the multiplatinum hitmaker attacks her recent divorce in all styles: as a punk-rock kiss-off, a country-rock anthem and a bleeding-heart plea..." Blender (Magazine) (p.79) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "She's been working with many of her cowriters for years and they know how to wrap her husky, overheated rasp around a range of styles....The bigger the gamble, the stronger she feels."

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