Arista
Pop, 2003

Poor P!nk. In Try This, she tries even harder to convince people that she is really hardcore and bad, even if this means that she will scream out every semblance of tune from this collection of filler tracks. But how can our darling be hardcore when she’s appearing in Pepsi ads with Enrique Iglesias, Beyoncé, and Britney Spears? It is very hard to reconcile her desperate media-hoing to the TRL crowds while claiming to be hardcore when she built her career entirely on the same TRL crowd that is now turning against her. As a result, Try This is as artificial as anything Avril Lavigne puts out.

Still, it’s pop music we’re talking about and being artificial is never a crime in pop music. No, P!nk’s crime here is to cram this CD with what seems like tuneless rejects from her last two CDs. The songs here have literally very little tune, much less hook. She’s just screaming her way through tracks like God is a DJ, Trouble, and Humble Neighborhoods, as if her liberally using the F word and hinting that she’s had a bad-ass past will make her a credible rebel with attitude. Vanilla Ice called, P!nk, to tell you that that shtick never worked in the past.

As I’ve said, it’s no crime to be artificial, but it’s a hanging crime when one puts out a CD as tune-free as Try This.