Beautiful Trauma

On her seventh studio album, P!nk achieves perfection. Featuring contributions from Jack Antonoff and longtime creative partner Billy Mann, *Beautiful Trauma* is a cathartic and wholehearted fusion of the personal and political. It begins with the piano-driven, Antonoff-produced thrills of the title cut and never wavers—from devastating ballads (“Barbies”) to festival-ready anthems for the disenfranchised (“What About Us”) and a devilish collaboration with Eminem (“Revenge”). The result is pop without filters: bold, frank, beautiful.

Album reviews of the week:

Our take on the seventh album from the spunky diva.

Also Willie Nelson - Willie’s Stash Vol. 2, John Carpenter - Anthology, and Lucinda Williams - This Sweet Old World

Five years separate Beautiful Trauma from its predecessor, 2012's The Truth About Love -- a half-decade P!

(RCA)

Beautiful Trauma’s neat construction renders the album less than the sum of its parts.

Photo: Ryan Aylsworth.

Seventh album from US star fails to go beyond the now ubiquitous self-empowerment anthemic. CD New Music review by Thomas H Green