PINK — ‘Trouble’

I was listening to Ultravox just before I downloaded this and imagine my glee when Pink’s new single starts with a hyper-authentic back-to-’81 tak-tak-tak bass sound. ‘Glee!’ I thought, ‘This is going to be like a Girls Aloud single!’. And I was right, hooray, in that it sounds like lots of different bits of old pop stuck together with now pop attitude. But I was wrong, boo, in that it isn’t as good. The song can’t decide whether it’s an icy Kim Wilde glide or a raucous Tina strut or a fuel-injected Go-Go’s romp — the only common factor is Pink, who is doing her Proper Rock Vocalist thing throughout but can’t quite pull the song together. She certainly doesn’t give the impression she wants to sing on pop singles anymore so why do people keep writing them for her?

Tom in FT /New York London Paris Munich • Pop • 196 views