Michael Cragg 

Pink: Trustfall review – playful business as usual

With her supple vocals outshining her material, the singer sticks to a tried-and-tested formula on this hit-and-miss record
  
  

Pink.
‘Pleasing tangents’: Pink. Photograph: Ebru Yildiz

For all of Pink’s rebellious spirit, her recent albums have followed a familiar pattern. A mixture of rustic ballads, pogoing guitar stomps and pepped-up pop anthems, usually co-written by a Swede, they’ve tended to blur into one. On Trustfall, her ninth album, she takes a few pleasing tangents – the pulsating, Robyn-like title track; the country sway of the lovely Last Call – but for the most part it’s business as usual.

The key element, as ever, is Pink’s voice. As supple as a gymnast, she anchors saccharine opener When I Get There’s sense of mourning, and is as comfortable navigating the Blinding Lights-esque Runaway as she is galloping through Hate Me, which suggests a less mumbly the Strokes but with a feminist twist: “I’m not your bitch, wanna light me up like an evil witch,” runs the chorus.

It’s a shame, then, that the material isn’t always up to scratch. Turbulence is as deep as any self-help Instagram post; Lost Cause is Adele-lite; and your enjoyment of DayGlo single Never Gonna Not Dance Again may depend on your sugar tolerance. Patchy but playful in places, Trustfall is reliably Pink.

Watch the video for Trustfall by Pink.
 

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