Try This is the third studio album by American singer Pink, released on November 11, 2003, by Arista Records. Wanting to expand more on the rock sound, which she explored on her previous record, Missundaztood, for Try This Pink collaborated with punk band Rancid's singer and guitarist Tim Armstrong, and reunited with Linda Perry, who produced most of the Missundaztood album. As a result of this collaboration, Try This is a rock and roll and pop record, with lyrics exploring such themes as love and estrangement.
Try This received generally favorable reviews from music critics. However, retrospectively Pink herself expressed dissatisfaction with the record. She said that she was unhappy with the way the label wanted her to make an album after the success of M!ssundaztood. Commercially, the album was moderately successful, reaching the top ten in 13 countries, including the US, where it peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200. Internationally, the album also fared quite well, peaking at number three in the UK, and number eight in Canada. It was certified Platinum in the US by the RIAA for shipments of over one million copies.
Three singles were released from the album. The lead single, "Trouble", reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, the UK, and many European countries. Trouble earned Pink her second Grammy Award, for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 2004 Grammy Awards. "God Is a DJ" and "Last to Know", the second and third singles from the album respectively, were modestly successful in European charts. However, all of the singles from Try This failed to garner much success in the US. Some of the album pressings also included the single "Feel Good Time" from the soundtrack for the movie Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Pink supported the album with her Try This Tour in 2004, which performed across Europe and Australia. The live recording of the Manchester show was released in 2006, titled Pink: Live in Europe.
Background and composition
After the success of Missundaztood (2001) and its accompanying worldwide Party Tour, Pink began work on her third studio album. Wanting to expand more on the rock sound she explored with Missundaztood, Pink sought out producers and writers that had experience within the genre. Most of the tracks on Try This were produced and co-written by punk band Rancid singer and guitarist Tim Armstrong, whom Pink met through a mutual friend at a Transplants video shoot. The two hit it off and Pink ended up co-writing ten songs with him in a week when Transplants were on a tour with the Foo Fighters. Eight of these tracks appeared on Try This, which also features three songs written with Linda Perry, who co-wrote much of Missundaztood, Pink's second album. The album includes a collaboration with electroclash artist Peaches, "Oh My God", and Pink's contribution to the Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle film soundtrack, "Feel Good Time" (produced by and featuring William Orbit), as a non-U.S. bonus track.
Try This was Pink's final studio album under Arista Records. In 2006, Pink said that she was unhappy with the way the label wanted her to make an album after the success of M!ssundaztood. "I was kind of rebelling against the label on that one," she said. "I was going: 'You want a record? Fine, I'll write 10 songs in a week for your fuckin' record and you can press it up and put it out.'"[1] She described the promotional campaign for the album as "an awful time. I was walking out of half my interviews crying. I just felt they were putting a quarter in the slot to watch the monkey dance."[1]Try This is Pink's first album to carry a Parental Advisory warning, and therefore her first album released alongside an edited version. The font used throughout the album's artwork is the same that was used for then label-mates Ace of Base's Cruel Summer single.
The album's first single, "Trouble", a song Armstrong original wrote for his band Rancid in 2003, reached number two in Canada and the top ten in the UK and Australia, but it peaked only at number 68 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. In 2003, "Catch Me While I'm Sleeping" was issued as a promotional single in the U.S.;[6] in the same period, a promo CD-R acetate of "Humble Neighborhoods" was made available in the UK.[7] Follow-up single "God Is a DJ" failed to chart on the Hot 100, although it reached number 11 in the UK. A third single, "Last to Know", was released exclusively in Europe and peaked at 21 in the UK.
The album received almost entirely positive reviews from critics, with an average Metacritic rating of 71, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album four out of five stars. He found that "with Try This, Pink has firmly established a voice of her own, and in doing so, she's made another tremendous modern pop record."[2]Blender critic James Slaughter felt that "with her third album, Pink has smartly navigated a way to be heard over the mass moaning that has followed her [...] The guitars are raunchier, the lyrics more potty-mouthed [but] the music never loses its melodic touch, whether essaying the gutsy rock or glossy Philly R&B balladry."[4] Nick Catucci from The Village Voice noted that the album "dares Pink's huge but hardly guaranteed audience to hear the world her way — without wasting one moment on indulgent experimentation, rote grandstanding, or retreats into conformism [...]" Assisted by soft crusty-punk Tim Armstrong, Try This is a rare leap of faith — a miracle of pop."[15]
David Browne, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave the album a positive review and called it "A hooky, engaging throwaway that expands Pink's range while holding on fiercely to her irascible inner child." However, he was less impressed with Perry's contributions on Try This, further noting: "Maybe Pink isn't very different from her teen-pop refugees: She's a rebel only to a point, and she's more than willing to compromise her rawness for crossover pop success. Yet while her peers struggle to grime themselves up, Pink and her exuberantly junky pop still stand head and bustier above the rest."[9] However, there were some negative reviews, with Ethan Brown from New York magazine stating that "Pink pitches a brand of seriousness that is pure Lifetime-TV mawkishness,"[16] while Alexis Petridis from The Guardian commented that "Like a lot of pop at the moment, it just sounds like a wan imitation of Pink's second album."[5]
Commercial performance
Try This debuted at number nine on the U.S. Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 147,000 copies, a weaker debut than that of Missundaztood.[17] The album also reached the top ten on album charts in the UK, Canada and Australia. As of March 2007, it had sold 719,000 copies in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan.[18]Try This re-entered the Australian album chart in June 2009.[19]
