Hurts 2B Human
Hurts 2B Human is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Pink. Released on April 26, 2019, by RCA Records, the album was initially planned as a standalone extended play (EP). Pursuing a sound that would be a departure from her previous albums, Pink enlisted the assistance of collaborators such as Greg Kurstin, Max Martin, and Ryan Tedder. The album features guest appearances by Cash Cash, Khalid, Chris Stapleton, and Wrabel. The album was officially announced during Pink's interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show broadcast in February 2019. Musically, Hurts 2B Human is a pop record whose lyrics delve into themes of love, family, introspection, life, and self-worth.
This article is about the album. For its title track, see Hurts 2B Human (song).Hurts 2B Human
April 26, 2019
2018–19
Various (see below)
47:03
- Cash Cash
- Simon Gooding
- Oscar Görres
- Greg Kurstin
- Billy Mann
- Max Martin
- Kyle Moorman
- Jorgen Odegard
- Sal Oliveri
- Pink
- Dan Reynolds
- Steve Robson
- Shellback
- The Struts
- Ryan Tedder
- Peter Thomas
- Wrabel
The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, many of whom praised its production and cohesiveness; others felt it was too calculated and formulaic. Commercially, the album was successful, reaching number one in eight countries including The UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Switzerland. In the United States, Hurts 2B Human became Pink's third consecutive album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awarded it a platinum certification. To promote the singer's album, "Walk Me Home" was released on February 20, 2019, as a lead single to commercial success, peaking within the top-ten charts of several countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The second single, "Can We Pretend", was released on June 21, 2019, while the title track and "Love Me Anyway" had a limited release.
Background[edit]
Pink released her seventh studio album Beautiful Trauma in October 2017 to positive reviews.[1][2] In 2017, it was the third global best-selling album, and as of 2018 it had sold over three million units worldwide.[3][4] Beautiful Trauma earned Pink two Grammy nominations, one in 2018 and another in the 2019 ceremony.[5][6] Pink embarked on the Beautiful Trauma World Tour, which began in March 2018 and ended in November 2019, to further promote the album.[7][8] On January 26, 2019, Pink appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show for an interview. When asked about new music, Pink announced that a song titled "Walk Me Home" would be released in two weeks, while the album, titled Hurts 2B Human, was expected to be released in April 2019.[9]
The album's cover was unveiled on February 28, after Pink uploaded three teasers on her social media.[10] Photographed by Andrew Macpherson and designed by Hueman, the image features an artistic and colorful representation of the left side of Pink's face.[11][12] It includes an array of warm and bright colors, giving the sense of a watercolor-like painting.[10][13] During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the singer said that she chose to name the album Hurts 2B Human because the title track "hit a string in [her] that just resonates" and it felt "the most true to what's going on right now".[14]
Music and lyrical interpretation[edit]
Hurts 2B Human is primarily a pop album[23][24] that integrates elements of dance and country music.[25] Most critics felt that the record consists mainly of radio-friendly power ballads.[25][26][27] The album opens with "Hustle", an upbeat pop song with country influences.[28][29] Chris DeVille of Stereogum described it as "jazzy, bluesy retro" and "finger-snapper".[27] Thematically, it delves into a relationship gone wrong, with the singer warning her partner that he will not be able to take advantage of her again.[30][31] The second track, "(Hey Why) Miss You Sometime", is a dance-pop track.[32] The song finds Pink missing a person who hurt her in the past. She sings a heavily auto-tuned vocal.[33][34] "Walk Me Home" is a pop song with country elements and "flourishes of digitised vocal production", considered a "fresh touch" in Pink's discography by Aimee Cliff of The Guardian.[24] "My Attic", the fourth track, is an introspective ballad.[35] It contains "raspy" vocals and "poetic" lyrics about storing memories and secrets.[23][29][33] Wrabel is a featured guest the next song, "90 Days", which is a minimalist electronica ballad accompanied by a piano and "Vocoder-enhanced harmonies".[23][26] It depicts a relationship turned sour in which a partner has doubts and fears that their love will end.[36] Both Alexa Camp of Slant Magazine and Amy O'Connor of The Irish Times compared "90 Days" with Imogen Heap's song "Hide and Seek" (2005).[34][25]
The title track features Khalid. Its composition consists of an "EDM beat, plucky electric guitar chord" and synths, while lyrically the song finds the singers acknowledging the struggles that individuals face everyday and celebrating the power of bringing people together.[23][37][38] The seventh track, "Can We Pretend", is an EDM and dance-pop song featuring Cash Cash.[24][39] Its lyrics emphasize using nostalgia as a way of escapism from the "less than ideal" present reality, with Pink singing: "Hell yeah/Can we pretend? 'Cause honestly, reality, it bores me".[33] "Courage" is an acoustic "slow-build" power ballad with "nervy" vocals.[23][29][34] Thom Murphy of the Washington Blade compared the song's hook with Katy Perry's "Chained to the Rhythm" (2017).[32] "Happy", the ninth song, describes Pink's fear of opening up and her insecurities while growing up, as she sings: "Since I was 17, I've always hated my body, and it feels like my body hated me".[40] Pink revealed that this line was inspired by a miscarriage she suffered at the age of seventeen, saying that "when [it] happens to a woman or a young girl, you feel like your body hates you and like your body is broken, and it's not doing what it's supposed to do".[19]
"We Could Have It All" is a "groove-heavy" pop rock song.[23][28] According to Mike Wass of Idolator, it "captures the feeling of defeat when you have ruined a good thing and don't know quite how".[35] The album's eleventh track is "Love Me Anyway", a country ballad which features Chris Stapleton.[32] It portrays the act of commitment in a relationship and the obstacles which may occur, with lyrics such as the opening lines, "Even if you see my scars, even if I break your heart/ If we're a million miles apart, do you think you'd walk away?"[40] Maura Johnston of Entertainment Weekly called Pink's vocals "roughhewn", while Sean Maunier of Metro Weekly felt the duet worked because Stapleton's voice is "fading into the background".[23][33] For the penultimate song, "Circle Game", Pink reflects upon motherhood, mortality and "growing up to become the parental figure she once looked up to".[41] A piano-driven ballad, deemed as a "very personal offering",[29][40] it also focuses on topics like her relationship with her daughter, and childhood vulnerabilities that Pink has carried into adulthood.[33] The singer said that the track was inspired by her dad, saying: "He was my first hero. He was my God when I was a little girl. He's who taught me to fight for what I believe in. He's a big part of me."[14] The album concludes with "The Last Song of Your Life", an acoustic folk ballad with melancholic undertones and "a devastating appeal for honesty and authenticity".[29][34][35]
Commercial performance[edit]
Hurts 2B Human debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart of the United States, selling 115,000 album-equivalent units in the week ending May 2 according to Nielsen SoundScan. It became Pink's third album to top the chart, following The Truth About Love (2012) and Beautiful Trauma (2017).[66] Hurts 2B Human was also the second best-selling album of the week, with pure album sales of 95,000 copies.[67] The following week, Billboard reported that the album had dropped five places on the Billboard 200, with sales decreasing 68% to 36,000 units.[68] By June 2019, the album had sold 158,000 pure album sales in the US.[69] In Canada, the record debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 13,000 units in its first week, according to the Canadian SoundScan.[70]
In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at the top of the UK Albums Chart, with first week sales of 48,861 copies (including 4,359 from stream-equivalent units), outselling its closest competitor, The Balance by Catfish and the Bottlemen, by 22,000 units. It became her third chart-topping album there.[71][72] The following week, Hurts 2B Human remained at the summit of the chart, selling 16,713 equivalent units. It became her first album to spend more than one week at the top in the country.[73][74] The record continued to hold the number one spot for a third week in a row, with 11,582 equivalent units.[75] Hurts 2B Human received a silver certification from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for selling over 60,000 units in the country.[76] Across Europe, the album reached the top of the charts in Belgium (Flanders), Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland, and Switzerland, and the top ten in other nations.[77][78][79]
In Australia, Hurts 2B Human debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Pink's sixth chart-topping album there.[80][81] The album marked her forty-first week atop the chart, breaking her tie with Adele and ranking her at number five on the list of artists with most accumulated weeks at the top.[81] It also gave her the distinction of being the female artist with the most cumulative weeks at number one, as well as placing her second on the list of female artists with the most chart-topping albums, behind only Madonna.[81] Subsequently, Hurts 2B Human spent a total of three weeks at number one on the chart,[80] and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 copies.[82] In New Zealand, the record also debuted at the top spot on the Official New Zealand Music Chart, and became Pink's third number one album.[83] It received a gold certification from the Recorded Music NZ for shipments of over 7,500 units.[84]