Pink has real pop power… ADRIAN THRILLS reviews the latest release from the pop star, Trustfall

When she released her fourth album, I’m Not Dead, in 2006, Pink included a song with her father Jim Moore.

The acoustic I Have Seen The Rain had been written 40 years earlier by Jim while he was serving in Vietnam. With father and daughter harmonizing beautifully, he brought the record to a poignant close.

Jim, who died in August 2021 after a battle with prostate cancer, also features on Pink’s latest album, Trustfall, with the American singer paying an equally moving tribute on When I Get There, a string ballad on the that his voice cracks with emotion. : ‘I heard a joke and I know you would have told it better… Is there a bar up there where you have a favorite chair?’

The song is typical of a pop singer who, despite her sass, has always been relatable to the fans who have bought more than 60 million of her albums.

Born Alecia Moore 43 years ago in Philadelphia, she had a touch of the young Madonna when she stormed the UK charts 23 years ago, but is very much her own woman now.

Released ahead of a UK tour that is already one of the most popular entries of 2023, their ninth album is a laudable successor to 2019’s Hurts 2B Human.

When I Get There aside, it’s not quite on the same level in terms of soul reveal; but it’s another fine example of the depth and resilience of Pink’s songwriting. “When shit hits the fan, use it as a big hair moment,” she says, with her usual candor, of Trustfall. ‘Throw your hands to the sky and dance.’

It’s a mantra the singer, pictured right, applies to about half the tracks here, as she moves between rock and disco.

The focus elsewhere is on ballads, with guests The Lumineers and First Aid Kit adding folk and country flourishes.

Her guttural tone is essentially that of a rock vocalist in the Janis Joplin tradition, and she shines on pop and dance numbers.

The title track, directed by BRIT Award-winning producer Fred Again, is a heart-pounding hit perfect for their outdoor shows. His fluent delivery also detracts from the awkward title of Never Gonna Not Dance Again.

She takes a sarcastic shot at her detractors on the frenetic Hate Me, one of the best songs on the album: “She’s crazy, she talks too much / She’s loud and drunk / Let’s cut her down a bit.” Even when she delivers an acoustic pop number like Feel Something, about her self-esteem issues, she does it with attitude to spare.

The places for guests are uneven. Long Way To Go is a part-time collaboration with the Denver-based The Lumineers, America’s answer to Mumford & Sons. The country ballad Kids In Love, featuring First Aid Kit, sounds too much like the Swedish sister act and not enough like Pink.

A third guest spot, with Kentucky rocker Chris Stapleton, is better. A thumping country-soul track that sounds like she came out of Nashville in the 1960s, Just Say I’m Sorry is a kitchen sink drama with great he-said-she-said lines. Like the piano ballad Lost Cause, it may well be about Pink’s enduring 17-year marriage to former motocross star Carey Hart.

Considering the 2019 Beautiful Trauma tour, their summer concerts should be superbly staged and packed with hits.

How prominent Trustfall’s features are remains to be seen, but it’s a potent addition to an enviable arsenal of songs.

Fronted by Bono’s eldest son, Elijah Hewson, Dublin guitar band Inhaler did something to counter the inevitable cries of rock ‘n’ roll nepotism when their first album, It Won’t Always Be Like This, headlined the UK charts in 2021.

Fueled by the exuberance of youth, and the frustrations of lockdown, his sweeping guitar anthems were steady and energetic.

The second album, Cuts & Bruises, offers more of the same, with Hewson developing as a songwriter and his three bandmates adding more threads to his bow on the rock-soul ballad If You’re Gonna Break My Heart and the poppy Love. Will Get You There.

There are moments, like in So Far, So Good, when Elijah bellows like Bono. But other similarities to U2 are rooted not just in family ties, but also in the current vogue among young acts, including The 1975 and Sam Fender, for 1980s-inflected rock. Cuts & Bruises owes just as much to him. to Magazine, Joy Division and The Pretenders as to U2.

We’re not yet at the stage where people are going to start saying ‘Who?’ from his father’s gang, but Inhaler is charting his own course.

And, as U2 focus on curating their legacy by re-recording old songs for next month’s Songs Of Surrender album, it’s refreshing to hear some new arena-ready songs from the Hewson clan.

THE JORDAN: Nowhere Near The Sky (kitchen vinyl)

Verdict: The Mystery Woman Reveals Herself

Classification:

You do not even know me. . . but I’ve been here all along in a different story,’ sang emerging artist The Jordan in a song released without fanfare last May.

It turned out that we knew her and the ‘different story’ (revealed last August) was that she was none other than daytime radio friend jazz singer Caro Emerald.

Nicknamed ‘the Dutch Adele’ but closer to Amy Winehouse minus the meltdowns, she topped the UK charts with her second album The Shocking Miss Emerald in 2013 and drew Glastonbury fans to Strictly Come Dancing with a voice that sounds straight out of the 1940s and songs with Latin, swing and big band touches.

His debut album as The Jordan offers something different. All dark, dreamy electronica, The Room sounds like the theme song to a 1990s TV mystery (think Twin Peaks), while Temptation takes Portishead’s trip-hop masterpiece Dummy as its template, an impression enhanced by the presence of the latter’s Adrian Utley on guitar.

There is a feeling that the singer was not in love with her former showgirl image. “I wasn’t born to be so nice,” she sings herself on A Price To Pay. With hints of the old sound from her on the steamy ballad Catwalk, this is a fresh start rather than a complete reinvention, but it’s an intriguing move nonetheless.

The Jordan play Bush Hall, London, on March 17 (gigsandtours.com).