Pink doesn't sing songs. She mauls them, gobbling the microphone like a hyena that hasn't eaten in a week. At her best, she is pop's most galvanizing tough broad, but her sixth LP devolves into self parody. Co-written with studio aces like Max Martin and Greg Kurstin, it delivers power-chord packed electro-pop, and the lyrics cover the usual subjects: self-reliance, sex, rebellion. It's supercatchy, but Pink strains to shock, peppering songs with gratuitous curse words. Best is "Just Give Me a Reason," a ballad co-written with fun. frontman Nate Ruess, in which Pink dials back the drama, letting the melody and sentiments do their work, and singing, for once, instead of yowling.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.