Music reviews

Pink Beautiful Trauma (Universal) ★★ With millions of record sales and a number of top 10 singles, ‘‘success’’ is probably not a primary goal for Pink. Yet this seventh album doesn’t demonstrate the risks she could take at this point in her career. Old fans will find plenty of moments to connect with, but this is the kind of insipid music that drives many to steer clear of commercial pop. However, Pink still has the ability to work some fun musical ideas together. Revenge has a cool chorus which works well, with guest vocals from Eminem. In regards to production, Beautiful Trauma sits in a good place – it doesn’t jump on the excessively produced mainstream trend of EDM. Pink appears content to keep it relatively stripped back and doesn’t rely on an over-emphasis of instrumentation. You can’t write this off as pure top 40 drivel. There’s still plenty of solid songwriting chops but don’t expect it to have any real lasting impact. – Hugh Collins Great North The Golden Age (Self-released) ★★★★ Great North has been sailing along for a decade now, quietly racking up several albums and the odd notable award without truly making a big splash. Going by their latest album, quite why they haven’t is a mystery. The Golden Age is a fine effort, full of lovely three-minute slices of melodic, dreamy alt-country. ‘‘I like that this album inspired by failure… is our most optimistic-sounding ever,’’ frontman Hayden Donnell said recently. Everything sounds disarmingly upbeat, even when addressing some pretty tough issues. Songs such as The Late Bus Home address the harsh realities of being in a band, while Better Days looks towards a brighter future. It’s a future they deserve. The Golden Age is a beautiful listen. – Jack Barlow Weezer Pacific Daydream (Warner) ★★ Fans eagerly anticipating Weezer’s ‘‘Black Album’’ – described by the band as being gritty, electronic and modern, now announced as not appearing until 2018 – seem taken aback by the surprise emergence of Pacific Daydream. These songs are better described as being anodyne, analogue and anachronistic. Weezer clearly aspire to the sun-tinged Californian beach rock of the Beach Boys – if the heavily indebted melodies of Weekend Woman, QB Blitz, and Any Friend of Diane‘ s didn’t tip you off, the song actually titled Beach Boys (‘‘keep cranking them Beach Boys’’) will. They manage this, but in the worst way possible – the lyrical shortcomings of the ‘‘surf’’ era, with none of the craft of later songs, and none of the hooks of either. – James Cardno