Shiny & New Turns 2: #14 "Sober" - P!nk

“I don't wanna be the girl who laughs the loudest / Or the girl who never wants to be alone"

P!nk’s “Sober” couldn’t have been more different to its predecessor, 2008’s lead single “So What” (released on my birthday, dontcha know). On the latter, P!nk came to terms with a relationship split by screaming so loud she couldn’t or didn’t want to cry, and took it one step further by, rather post-modernly, mocking the whole ‘scream-through-the-tears’ attitude reviewers praised her for refreshingly displaying, in the song’s video. But on “Sober”, on “Sober” we got dark, serious P!nk, perhaps the darkest yet, and considering she’s had her fair share of these moments, ever since the UK chart-topping “Just Like a Pill” in 2002, that was something indeed.

As a mainstream international female popstar, P!nk doesn’t seem to get a lot of credit from critics, and sure enough, her music rarely strays out of her pop/rock comfort zone. But since her sophomore album, M!ssundaztood, she has proven herself to be an incredible lyricist and on “Sober” her talents are in full effect: “I don't wanna be the girl who laughs the loudest / Or the girl who never wants to be alone / I don't wanna be that call at 4 o'clock in the morning / 'Cos I'm the only one you know in the world that won't be home”. Capturing a unique and usually unheard of sentiment in mainstream pop, she brilliantly outlines her incomprehension at just how good she feels without a man, and just how independently she thinks, never putting a male’s needs before her own. It also helps that on “Sober” we get to hear a little musical innovation. Those gorgeous, almost baroque strings at the end are the perfect, emotional but brittle match for P!nk and her fascinating tough girl sensitivy. “Sober” is a songwriting triumph.