Pink: 'Funhouse'

As break-up songs go, 'So What' is an absolute hoot: Pink insists she'll be OK because she's "still a rock star", her ex gets called a "tool" and we chant along to every last "na na na" thanks to some terrific pop hooks from Max Martin. When combined with a video for which the textspeak shorthand of 'LOL' could been have invented - Pink sets upon a couple of newlyweds, Pink flashes the paparazzi, Pink gets drunk and drives her lawn-mower down Sunset Boulevard - the package is pretty irresistible.

Sadly, this sense of humour is largely M.I.A. on Funhouse, an album that finds Pink struggling to come to terms with the end of her marriage. She's alternately defiant, desperate, tearful, sanguine and suicidal across these fourteen tracks - for every reflective moment like 'Crystal Ball', on which she claims she wouldn't "trade the pain for what she learned", there's a bonkers one like 'Funhouse', on which she threatens to torch the marital home.

Thanks to a reliable cast of collaborators, including Pink stalwarts Billy Mann, Butch Walker and Max Martin, the music is a good deal more consistent than the lyrics. The ballads, of which there are a few too many, are universally well-crafted, with 'Crystal Ball', a lovely acoustic number, and 'One Foot Wrong', a brassy, dramatic collaboration with English songwriter Eg White, probably the pick of the crop. Pink's vocals, meanwhile, are fantastic throughout.

Actually, Funhouse seems more ballad-heavy than it really is - partly because four of the first five tracks are slowies, and partly because the uptempo cuts that follow aren't exactly a barrel of laughs. 'Bad Influence' is a bit unhinged, 'Funhouse' finds her contemplating arson and 'It's All Your Fault', the nearest thing to a 'So What'-style stomper, features this cheery little couplet: "I would never pull the trigger, but I've cried wolf a thousand times."

Though it's far from a bad album, Funhouse lacks the range of Pink's best efforts. She's always been good at balancing the serious with the silly - her last album featured an open letter to George W. Bush and a song that advised lecherous clubbers to sod off and pleasure themselves. Sadly, Funhouse features more of the former than the latter, with light relief only really arriving on the UK bonus tracks. Then again, given the range of messy emotions Pink reveals in her lyrics, it's no surprise she doesn't want to get the party started.