Music
Review: Pink Keeps Energy High, Vitriol Catchy on ‘Beautiful Trauma’
Our take on the seventh album from the spunky diva
Pink was dominating the charts with spunky,
real-talking anthems back when today’s slow-sad divas were in preschool, and her
seventh LP is a reminder of that. The title track and the strummy “Whatever
You Want” are vintage Pink, with juicy hooks and pop-rock muscle; “I
Am Here” underscores its EDM-powerment message with a gospel choir. Trauma’s
chilled-out middle sags, but “Revenge,” her bad-romance duet with
Eminem, is an early shot of energy; Max Martin and Shellback’s homage to Dr. Dre’s
skip-step beats may be too on the nose, but Em’s rhymes nicely recall a time
when even lunatics rode bright hooks.