Album review: P!nk - Hurts 2B Human

For this weeks album review I asked my wife to choose again and this time she chose Hurts 2B Human, the eighth album but American singer songwriter P!nk which was released last year. This album continued P!nk's success worldwide, across her eight studio albums and one greatest hits album, becoming her third number 1 album in the UK and ninth top 20 of which only one missed the top 10. In America it also became her third number 1 and eighth top 10, while Hurts 2B Human is P!nk's sixth number 1 in Australia with four other top 20's. Hurts 2B Human also went top 10 in eighteen other countries seven of which it went number 1. There was only one hit single from this album, Walk Me Home went to number 8 in the UK, number 11 in Australia and top 10 in another eleven countries.

I have always been a fan of P!nk, her voice is incredible and fits every style of music she has tried which she always pulls off perfectly, plus her lyrics are always brutally honest and hard hitting. It comes as no surprise then that I love this album as it is truly brilliant, although it is not my favourite of P!nk's albums as it would take a lot to beat the supreme awesomeness of Funhouse (even if Beautiful Trauma did get close). This album contains four collaborations and they are all very different but also great, each blending aspects of P!nk's style and the collaborators. The collaborators are American singer songwriters Wrabel and Khalid, American electronic trio Cash Cash and country singer songwriter Chris Stapleton. Interestingly in the case of Khalid's feature on the track Hurts 2B Human it is one of my favourite songs by him alongside another collaboration 1-800-273-8255 with Logic and Alessia Cara which is on Logic's album Everybody that I reviewed a couple of weeks ago. The other collaborators I already liked a fair bit and just continued to lift them in my opinion, in particular Chris Stapleton who I have grown to appreciate a lot over the last few years, this leads nicely onto my favourite song.

My favourite song on the album is Love Me Anyway with Chris Stapleton, this is an incredible song and perfect in so many ways. The song is about asking your significant other whether they will still love you no matter what, it is a simple song but done perfectly. The song opens with just a piano and very minimal production gets added keeping the song calm and stripped allowing the vocals to take centre stage which both artists have no problem doing, P!nk opens the song alone showing off her vocal range and pouring so much emotion into the first verse and chorus, Chris then comes in harmonising in the second verse with their voices blending beautifully despite how different they are. They continue to harmonise in the second chorus then the final part of the song has them singing together but slightly different words giving more of an opposition that really fits allowing P!nk to show off her higher range against Chris's lower range, in this part they give out even more emotion closing the song incredibly.

Honourable mentions for Hurts 2B Human got to My Attic and The Circle Game. Firstly My Attic, this is a really clever song being a metaphor for the mind and letting someone in by telling them everything. This is another calm song where P!nk's vocals take point being powerful and emotional while still fitting to the slower style of the song, this song fully shows how incredible P!nk's voice is. Then there is The Circle Game, a song about how roles change when you become a parent from being a child. This is a bigger song production wise and P!nk matches it with her big voice showing just how powerful it really is and never getting overpowered by the music.

To end then here are my ratings for each song on the album;

1. Hustle - 8.5/10

2. (Hey Why) Miss You Sometime - 8/10

3. Walk Me Home - 9/10

4. My Attic - 9.5/10

5. 90 Days ft Wrabel - 8.5/10

6. Hurts 2B Human ft Khalid - 8/10

7. Can We Pretend ft Cash Cash - 9/10

8. Courage - 8/10

9. Happy - 9/10

10. We Could Have It All - 8.5/10

11. Love Me Anyway ft Chris Stapleton - 9.5/10

12. The Circle Game - 9.5/10

13. The Last Song Of Your Life - 8.5/10