The Truth About Love

P!nk's made a concept album, but don't let that put you off.

The Truth About Love aims to impart just that, covering all bases from love's joys to its anguishes and grades in between. The thing is, P!nk's way more interested in its grubby and plain sad sides. It seems the truth about love is a harsh lesson to learn.

We've been here before, witnessing P!nk's relationship troubles in global number one So What, but in the real world she's having a rare old time as a new mum. Maybe singing about the darker side of love is just more fun.

And fun is the word here as P!nk rides her customary pop-punk to chronicle The Walk Of Shame – Hole's Celebrity Skin gone hyperactive – and revel in being a Slut Like You – this time, neatly, repurposing Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit riff. She even persuades Lily Allen to give this pop lark another go on the jittery True Love, but it's not quite free from sourness.

The obligatory ballads Just Give Me A Reason and the affecting The Great Escape see her stretching herself, but they're still mournful. Maybe she's miffed at there being no real belters here – certainly no So What monster – but if you can take the pain The Truth About Love isn't so hard a pill to swallow.

Album review by Matthew Horton