The Musicgoer: Pink's Funhouse

PINK
Funhouse
(LaFace)
*** 1/2 (out of 5)

Funhouse is Pink’s first album since her divorce from motocross star Carey Hart, and while it’s no Blood on the Tracks, it’s certainly a lot more fun to listen to than, say, Beck’s Sea Change.

For all of Pink’s proclamations of party-girl feminism (“I’m still a rock star! I got my rock moves!” she announces on the lead single, “So What”), her albums always contains a few ballads on which she either begs her guy not to leave her or begs him to come back. Their sexual politics are fairly retrograde, but actually “Please Don’t Leave Me” and “I Don’t Believe You” are two of the best songs on the disc — “Please Don't Leave Me" is propelled by a loping guitar riff that Stephin Merritt from The Magnetic Fields would kill to have come up with.

The only thing really holding the album back are Pink’s limitations as a lyricist; expressing herself poetically has never come naturally to her and too often she falls back on clichés, banalities, or howlers like “Am I sweating or are these tears on my face?” or “This used to be our funhouse, but now it’s full of evil clowns.” And why, in 2008, is she still making fun of Jessica Simpson? Find a new target, Pink! Katy Perry's standing right there!