Funhouse, Pink’s fifth album, opens with “So What,” a catchy, upbeat party tune about heading out for a night on the town. It’s also about giving the middle finger to haters, gossips and her ex-husband, motocross dude Carey Hart (although Hart does appear in the video, so he’s at least a good sport). That motif of angst and frustration couched in bright, shiny pop music pervades Funhouse, which is undoubtedly a break-up album even if not every song deals directly with the dissolution of a relationship.
Plenty of them do, though; just a scan through titles like “I Don’t Believe You,” “Please Don’t Leave Me” and “It’s All Your Fault” gives an indication of the heartbreak on display (the album’s working title was in fact Heartbreak Is a Motherfucker). Even the title track is actually about the absence of fun. Yet Funhouse isn’t a downer of an album; Pink maintains her finely honed pop instincts, and many of the tunes are instantly memorable and extremely radio-friendly.
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Musically, there isn’t much new here; Pink mostly sticks with the pop-rock template she established on 2001’s M!ssundaztood, working again with past collaborators Max Martin, Billy Mann and Butch Walker. One new contributor is Eg White, who co-writes and produces the slinky, electronic-inflected “One Foot Wrong,” giving the lyrics about being on the edge of despair an appropriately dark musical base.
The only unabashedly positive song on the album is “Bad Influence,” another party-all-night anthem in the vein of “Get the Party Started,” but surrounded by so much melancholy even that one takes on a hint of sadness. Pink puts on a brave face, making her pain into entertainment, and that combination of small-scale intimacy and large-scale production maintains her place as one of the most intriguing and distinctive pop stars around.
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