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Try This

by Pink

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While detractors may grouse that Pink's third album doesn't have a dance floor anthem on it like the incendiary "Get The Party Started" from 2001's Missundaztood, some prefer their Pink straight up and damn the paper drink umbrellas and crepe paper. She's at her very best raiding her own troubled autobiography for inspiration, spitting out vituperrious vocal epitaphs like seeds from a ripe watermelon instead of the angst-ridden confessional romp she took through Missundaztood. Maybe she's worked all that out on a psychiatrist's couch, because this time out her anger is much more arch and entertaining; likely due to her pairing with Rancid's Tim Armstrong, who co-wrote and produced most of the disc and certainly knows the value of turning rage into a well-crafted musical punch line. As unlikely as the collaboration looked on paper, it works perfectly because the Pennsylvania native has always brandished a punk sneer beneath the corsets, gaudy hair color, and naughty girl demeanor. Armstrong and his Rancid cohorts (Lars Frederiksen and Matt Freeman) inject feral rock action into the disc with their truncated guitar sounds and trash can drumming and provide a perfect foil for Pink's foul-mouth rants and backstage laments like "Last To Know." But Pink hasn't shaved her spiky coiffure into a Mohawk. She still smolders on a soulful ballad like "Catch Me While I'm Sleeping" or trades vitriol with raps' redoubtable sex kitten, Peaches. --Jaan Uhelszki