The Truth About Love (Pink album)

Background and development

On October 7, 2011, RCA Music Group announced that it would be disbanding Jive Records, along with Arista and J Records. With the shutdown, Pink and all other artists previously signed to the labels would release any future material through RCA Records. In 2011, Joe Riccitelli, an executive with the label, announced that Pink was preparing to enter the studio to begin work on her sixth studio album, to be released in September 2012. On February 29, 2012, Pink took to her Twitter account and confirmed that she was currently in the writing process for her new record. On June 19, 2012, Pink announced via video on Twitter that the first single from her upcoming album would be called "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" and that it would be released on July 9, 2012. She added, "I think you're going to like it, because I really like it, and I like it enough for all of us." However, the demo version of the song leaked on July 1, 2012, a week before its scheduled release. The next day, it was released via Pink's official page and her YouTube account. On July 4, 2012, Pink announced that her sixth studio album would be titled The Truth About Love.

Release and promotion

On September 6, 2012, Pink performed "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" for the first time with "Get the Party Started" (2001) at the 2012 MTV Music Video Awards. On September 10, 2012, Pink performed "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" and "Who Knew" (2006) on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Pink also released lyric videos for all the album's tracks (not including the bonus tracks) all on her official VEVO account. On September 14, 2012, Pink appeared on Alan Carr's show Chatty Man, performing her first single "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" and taking part in an interview. On November 18, 2012, Pink performed "Try" at the American Music Awards of 2012.

Singles

"Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" was released as the lead single from the album in July 2012. An uptempo electropop and dance-pop song with dance music influences produced by Greg Kurstin, "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" received general acclaim from most music critics, with some of them noting its resemblance with Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" which was also produced by Kurstin. The song first appeared on the Australian Singles Chart on the week ending 16 July 2012, peaking at #1. The song debuted at #8 on the New Zealand Top 40 chart. It also debuted at #13 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart. In Ireland, the song debuted at #23 on the Irish Singles Chart. In the United States, the song charted at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the week ending 21 July 2012. The following week, it rose to #9 and eventually peaked at #5. "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" has also recently debuted at #3 on the UK Singles Chart and #1 on the Scottish Singles Chart. "Try" was released as the second single in October 2012. The song debuted at #21 in New Zealand and #8 in Australia. The song became an instant hit, charting within the top 10 in fourteen countries, including at #1 in Spain and #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Its video was highly acclaimed and was reenacted at the 2012 AMAs which led to a notable increase in the sales of both the song and its host album.

"Just Give Me a Reason" was released as the third single in February 2013. The song has become the biggest hit from the album to date, reaching the top ten so far in over 25 countries, and #1 in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States. It has become the highest charting hit from the album in the US, reaching #1. It was the third song from The Truth About Love to be released on YouTube with a lyric video. A music video was shot and released on Pink's VEVO account in early February. The video features guest vocalist Nate Ruess and Pink's husband Carey Hart and became the most viewed video form Pink's VEVO, with more than 200 million views. The following week, Pink scored her 8th top 5 hit in the US and 14th top 10 hit overall.

"True Love" was released as the fourth single on June 28, 2013 in Italy and on July 15, 2013 in the US. The song features vocals from British recording artist Lily Allen. The song peaked at #53 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single performed even better in international markets, being certified Platinum in Australia and Gold in New Zealand.

"Walk of Shame" was released to Australian radio as the album's fifth single on September 25, 2013. An official music video for the song featuring live tour footage was released to promote the upcoming release of The Truth About Love Tour: Live in Melbourne. The single has so far peaked at #60 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. "Are We All We Are" was released as a single in select European countries. The single was released to Italian radio on October 31, 2013. "Are We All We Are" peaked at number 7 on the Hungarian Airplay Chart.

Critical reception

The Truth About Love received generally positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 16 reviews. Kyle Anderson of Entertainment Weekly dubbed it a "lyrical masterpiece" and praised Pink's songwriting as "unfalteringly vibrant, loaded with righteous anger, irreverence, and a clear eye for the darker side." Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian commended her for having "the nous to convert raw emotion into pop-punk earworms", although she commented that the "Mariah-slick motivational ballads ... detract from an otherwise fierce record." Andrew Hampp of Billboard called the album "a peerlessly witty, endlessly melodic tour de force". Consequence of Sound's Sarah Grant commended Pink for "filter[ing] whatever the current trend is through her unique musical lens" and commented that her "consistency proves she should be taken at her word."

Josh Langhoff of PopMatters praised Pink's hooks and found the album "not bad" for "major label singer-songwriter stuff". Jon Pareles of The New York Times felt that she "is committed to pop impact, not to any particular style", and "recognizes some nonstorybook sides of romance." Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine complimented her "eager[ness] to dive into the muck of grown-up emotions, expanding and deepening her music without succumbing to stuffy pretension", and called it "weird and willfully, proudly human, a big pop album about real emotions and one of P!nk's wildest rides." Caryn Ganz of Spin called Pink "charmingly unhinged" and wrote that, despite some "objectionable moments" of "rock'n'roll karaoke", "her songs have enough heart, grit, and energy to stand on their own." MSN Music's Robert Christgau viewed that, apart from its last two songs, the album "hit[s] every time" and quipped, "Pink (!) and her 21 collaborators fashion a recorded image of her feisty, heartfelt, all-over-the-place love/sex life."

Although he found it "supercatchy", Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone viewed that the album "devolves into self parody" as "Pink strains to shock, peppering songs with gratuitous curse words." Hermoine Hoby of The Observer favored its "workmanlike ballads delivered with beyond-workmanlike shading" over its "chunky guitar pop stuffed with shouty, bad-girl choruses", which she considered "dominates" the album. Marc Hirsh of The A.V. Club felt that Pink is pandering to her contemporaries in pop music, but complimented her "disarming candor that's all the more bracing because it's delivered with a middle finger." Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani viewed the album as formulaic and "competently, often frustratingly more of the same from an artist who still seems capable of much more." Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune perceived "formula production and hack songwriting", but complimented Pink's personality and its "handful" of worthy tracks.

Accolades

In his list for The Barnes & Noble Review, Robert Christgau named The Truth About Love the fourth best album of 2012. It also made NPR Music's list of 50 Favorite Albums Of 2012. It placed #11 on SPIN's list of best Pop Albums of 2012 It became Pink's second consecutive album to receive a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album, and her third overall to achieve the honor. However, on February 10, the album lost the Grammy to Kelly Clarkson's Stronger (2011). P!nk became the artist with most nominations in the category, with three, tying up with Clarkson, Madonna and Sarah McLachlan.

Commercial performance

In Australia, the album debuted at #1 and was certified double platinum within its first week of release, becoming Pink's third #1 album there. Having spent 51 weeks in the top 10, The Truth About Love was the best selling album of both 2012 and 2013 in Australia, with around 200,000 and 360,000 sales respectively, becoming the first album ever to be the bestseller of two different years in the country. The album has been certified eight times platinum there for accumulating over 560,000 sales. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at #2 with 80,000 copies sold in its first week behind The Killers' Battle Born.

The Truth About Love became Pink's first chart topping album in the United States, debuting at #1 with first week sales of over 281,000. In its second week the album fell to #4 with 94,000 copies sold. On Thanksgiving week, following her American Music Awards performance of "Try", the album leaped back into the Billboard 200 top ten at #7 with 144,000 copies sold. It has earned a Platinum certification from the RIAA denoting shipments to retailers of over 1 million copies in the US. In 2012, it sold 945,000 copies in the US and 446,000 copies in the UK. In Canada, the album debuted at #1 selling 28,000 copies. The Truth About Love sold 1,865,000 copies in the US as of December 2013. As of June 2014, the album has sold over 7 million copies worldwide.

Track listing

Notes

Personnel

Credits for The Truth About Love adapted from Allmusic.