Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 19/01/09
Label: RCA/Sony BMG

It's no secret that annoying songs go straight to Number One. Basshunter, The Ting Tings and Mika can all testify to that. By this measure, Pink's shouty mouthed comeback tantrum, "So What", was an exceptionally worthy chart-topper, provoking as it did an overwhelming sense of helplessness as the nursery rhyme chorus inevitably proved too strong to resist. The good news is that it was a one-off, a necessary attention grabbing blip to restart a stalled career. The bad news is that while the follow-up restores normal angsty rock service, it's so cripplingly dull that another novelty hit may soon be required.

If "So What" felt like a cheap shot, "Sober" has Pink trying to make amends with handwringing worthiness and misery. Contemplating a life without the drink and the excesses which once fuelled her bad behaviour, she wallows her way through bitterness, regret, self-loathing and general neediness, shuddering out depression and weary AOR as she goes. Proving that two wrongs don't make a right, and that daytime radio is no place to feel sorry for yourself, there's never been a better advert for alcohol.

    by Dan Gennoe