Missundaztood

1	M!issundaztood 3:36
2	Don't Let Me Get Me 3:31
3	Just Like a Pill 3:57
4	Get the Party Started 3:11
5	Respect / Pink 3:25
6	18 Wheeler 3:44
7	Family Portrait 4:56
8	Misery / Pink 4:33
9	Dear Diary 3:29
10	Eventually 3:34
11	Lonely Girl / Pink 4:21
12	Numb 3:06
13	Gone to California 4:34
14	My Vietnam 5:19

Barnes & Noble

On the rock-fueled "Don't Let Me Get Me," Pink vents that she's "tired of being compared to damn Britney Spears." No worries -- her ambitious sophomore release positions this "Lady Marmalade" alum closer to strong-willed female singers such as Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple, and her idol, Madonna. Pink goes on to recount: "L.A. told me/You'll be a pop star/All you have to change/Is everything you are," and sure enough, Missundaztood takes a radical departure from her R&B debut on L.A. Reid and Babyface's defunct LaFace label, delivering a sound clearly closer to her heart. She may have followed Reid to Arista Records, but she rejects her mentor's taste for trite lyrics and polished, cookie-cutter tracks for a set of lyrically hearty songs bolstered by edgy guitar and analog drum-accented beats. Pink even co-wrote 11 of the disc's 14 songs, and the themes reflect everything from her troubled childhood ("Family Portrait") to her move from her native Philly to Hollywood ("Gone to California"). The artistic growth spurt can be attributed in part to 4 Non-Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry, who co-wrote several of the disc's songs, including the energetic, Oingo Boingo-reminiscent first single, "Get the Party Started." Whether she's rockin' out on the empowering "18 Wheeler"; going to church on "Misery," a duet with childhood idol Steven Tyler of Aerosmith; or taking a stab at old-school rap on the girl-power roof raiser "Respect"; Pink always sounds in her element. The exhilarating metamorphosis finds her emerging as one of the best singers and most inspiring role models of her generation. Expect this punky Pink lady to be Missundaztood no longer. Ganda Suthivarakom

All Music Guide

Pink's debut album was a promising collection of dance-pop, easily lumped into the teen pop boon of 2000 since she was young and sang over savvy, skittering club beats. Those comparisons irked -- hell, angered -- Pink, and she was determined to prove she was real with her second album. So she called up her idol, Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes fame, to help her rock and write; bared her soul; fought for some artistic control; brought in Steven Tyler; and wound up with Missundaztood. This all sounds like the script for a VH1 movie, but the wild thing is that Missundaztood not only works, it works smashingly -- a bewildering amalgam of sounds and attitudes that shouldn't fit together, but defy all odds and do. This record bubbles over with imagination, as hooky pop songs like the title track rub shoulders with glitzy dancefloor anthems like "Get the Party Started" and sexy, swaggering arena rock redux like "18 Wheeler" before delving into weird confessionals like "Family Portrait," "Dear Diary," and "My Vietnam." Forget that this isn't what anybody would have expected Pink to do; it's hard to imagine anybody else that would have the idea and the inclination to blend late-'80s, metal-spiked album rock with modern hip-hop and dance, then dress it up with dazzling modern pop production, all the while not avoiding painful subjects (particularly her dysfunctional family) or melody. If that's not an artistic statement, I don't know what is, and the damn thing is there hasn't been a record in the mainstream this vibrant or this alive in a long, long time. Stephen Thomas Erlewine