Pop workhorse Pink is back today with the opener and title track of her upcoming seventh album, Beautiful Trauma. Like lead single “What About Us” and plenty of other Pink songs before it, “Beautiful Trauma” is oversized, emotional power-pop on a very Pink theme: a proudly fucked-up relationship that feels like a drug. It’s certainly more fun than “What About Us,” a song born as balm for a troubled society and raised to become retail background music.
But if you’re even a casual follower of pop music in 2017, lyrics may not be the first thing you notice about “Beautiful Trauma.” The song was co-produced by Jack Antonoff, who’s recently worked on Lorde’s Melodrama and Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” It’s hardly an unexpected link-up—Antonoff is ubiquitous right now, and his Fun. bandmate Nate Ruess even appeared on Pink’s previous album, 2012’s The Truth About Love. The results are pretty predictable, too. Wait for the beat to drop on “Beautiful Trauma” and you’ll hear all of Antonoff’s favorite things: Punchy gated reverb, individually articulated tom hits, hammered piano chords, hovering synthesizers. It sounds like “Green Light,” except it doesn’t snap. Listen below.
